Within
by lilskippy
Summary: Post-Chosen, the Scoobys are older and wiser. And Faith? She thinks she's dealt with her past...and the blonde who figured so prominently in it. That is, until the slayers are thrust together again to face the one thing they didn't think they had to fear.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Legalese, legalese.

* * *

"Move, move, move!"

The brunette slayer came flying out of the dim doorway, a spray of bullets peppering the doorframe in her wake. She grabbed the arm of the wide-eyed redhead standing there, nearly lifting her bodily before the girl could tell her feet to get in gear and spare herself the ignominy of being carried down the hallway.

The two slayers ran fast down one hallway after another. The guns still popped behind them, but further back as the girls made a skidding detour into one of the many stinking alcoves the abandoned building offered up. They breathed hard, ears turned to the sound of any following footsteps. Hearing nothing yet, the redhead looked over at her mentor, arching an eyebrow.

"Ok, that sucked." Faith admitted, arching an eyebrow in return that said _like you knew that was coming!_ "Vamps aren't supposed to have machine guns!"

"New York City. Duh!" The younger girl sassed, earning a playful swat to the head, and going on in a sing-song tone "If you'd just let me get in there, but nooo, you made me wait outside."

"Well, I'm sorry. Next time I promise you can make your ass like swiss cheese and I won't stop you." Faith shook her head in mock disbelief, asking the leaking ceiling. "Why they gotta send me the ones with delusions of grandeur?"

"So what are we going to do now, oh fearless leader?" the younger girl asked, her nose wrinkling a little from the stench of alcohol and urine in their current hideaway.

The brunette slayer straightened her shoulders and gave it her best professorial shot: "A slayer should be prepared for any contingency. Like a girl scout." The other girl snorted, and Faith abandoned her shtick to lean in and give the other girl a wicked smile. "I think these vamps are with the terrorists, not against them, so I say we kick some blood-sucking ass."

"Ooh, ooh, teacher, pick me!"

"Yes, Angie Marie?"

"What about the machine gun?"

Faith grinned. "That's a one-trick pony." She picked up a couple of bottles from the corner, swishing around a little of the liquid left behind, then pulled a lighter from her front pocket. "Not gonna be so useful when they're on fire, Ang. Now let's find some rags and have ourselves a little cocktail party!"

An hour later, the two girls looked like any two girls out for a Friday night in the Big Apple. They laughed easily, feeling strong, one-upping each other with stories about the looks on the vamps' faces as they hurtled pell mell out of the building right into the waiting stakes of the dark slayer and, under her watchful eye, her redheaded mentee. It may be New York City, but vamps were still stupid, and slayers were still better. And, at the moment, hungrier and hornier.

At the bar, they shot some pool and wolfed down fries. When Angie picked out a beautiful stud for the evening, Faith just winked and gave her charge a little shooing motion. The girl had been on her own for four years before Willow tracked her down, Faith knew she could take care of herself now. With a last pull on her beer, the dark slayer left for the apartment she and Angie shared, stopping for a couple of pizzas on the way. When Angie came in several hours later, Faith slit one eye open from the couch, watching the girl make her quiet way to her bedroom before putting the remaining pizza in the fridge, turning out the lights, and taking her own little self to bed.

* * *

Across the continent, another redhead leaned back at her desk, feeling each vertebrae complain at being hunched over for so long. Strong hands were on her shoulders in seconds, ready to help with the kinks. Looking up, Willow saw her lover's face looking down at her, smiled and closed her eyes.

"You work too hard."

"I know, Ken," Willow kept her eyes closed, enjoying the gentle kneading pressure. "Who knew it would be so much work setting up the school. So much to do, so many girls! I swear we're going to need Xander to set up more electrical outlets in the dorms...too many curling irons means kablooey fuses, not to mention a fire hazard!"

The brunette slayer smiled down at Willow, shhing her. "If these are the problems we've got, we're in good shape."

"I know, I know." The redhead relaxed a little. "Things are good. I've got you. Buffy seems pretty happy, you know, with there being no current apocalypse. Xander's even got a girlfriend. Yes, you're right. Things are of the good! I resolve to henceforth stress less."

"I'll believe that when I see it," the blonde slayer's voice chimed in through the open door. Willow looked over from her chair, smiling at the friend who knew her so well. Buffy leaned against the doorframe, cup of hot tea in her hands, looking...well, serene. That last thought made Willow smile even more, knowing that Buffy's peace had been fought for...hard. It was still too new to be taken for granted, but, since the battle with the First, Buffy was counting blessings and becoming a better leader. Just in time for a horde of slayers-in-training, all wanting to impress the California girl who was more than she seemed.

"And just what are you doing up, little missy? Nobody likes a cranky slayer." Her eyes widened a little as she saw the bandage peeking out from the shoulder of Buffy's tank top. "You're hurt?"

"Oh, no, Kennedy, now I've got to deal with Resolve Face." Willow mock-glared at Buffy while Kennedy chuckled and leaned in to kiss her tired witch. Buffy smiled and yawned, "Don't worry, Wills...I was just attacked by a vicious tree branch—lot tougher than the vampires tonight, as it turned out. Thankfully, between six slayers, we managed to fend it off. You two don't stay up too late—and try to keep it down this time. Slayer hearing, you know." Willow blushed, but managed to break the kiss long enough to wag a salacious eyebrow at Buffy, turning back to matters at hand as Buffy pulled the door shut and went across the hall to bed.

Buffy's bedroom was the upper corner of the big house they'd been lucky enough to find in an old Cleveland neighborhood. The moonlight reflected the home it had become in the last year: the window seat Xander had made for her (complete with built-in weapons chest!), pictures of the Scooby gang before all the mess of death and the First and Sunnydale becoming a big crater of nothing, a photo of her and Mom and Dawnie—the Summers women taking a moment to be happy. From the large bed, Mr. Gordo watched her: the oldest slayer, though you wouldn't know it, except by her eyes. As Buffy slipped between the sheets, she could hear Willow and Kennedy still talking softly; hear Dawn down the hall, listening to music; Xander's snores; Giles still riffling pages from the first-floor study; and, from the dorms, the occasional late-night whisperings and snickerings of the constant slayer slumber party there. It was all some sort of music to her. An easy slay earlier, friends all around, a nice bed and cute pajamas...what more could a girl want?

* * *

Buffy knew it was a dream because her hair looked great. I mean, really fantastic. Well, that and she was back in Sunnydale, with it looking less, you know, obliterated. She was walking towards the Bronze, which was really rocking. Music poured out of the open steel door and the darkness inside. It seemed familiar and she quickly placed it once she walked inside and glanced at the stage. The Dingoes. Of course! She spotted Oz, frowning a little at the thought of Willow's wolfy ex, remembering their last meeting. Oz looked at her with a half smile—or quarter smile, given that it was Oz—and winked. Buffy's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she walked further into the dim club.

Lots of people. Lots of sweaty dancing bodies. She swore she caught a glimpse of her dark counterpart wearing those same insane pants she had worn when Buffy had followed her and K.C. & the Sunshine Band boy outside, intending to save the day. Someone else couldn't really have those same pants, could they?

In the crush of bodies, Buffy found herself pushed towards the dance floor and, what the hell, dancing. It'd been a while since she danced, Cleveland not being exactly dancing mecca and all. She'd chaperoned a few of the younger slayers on a well-deserved night off from patrol. Been once or twice with Willow, Kennedy, Dawn, and Xander. But now she was really dancing! Head thrown back, the music just sounded like a roar. She was sweating and moving, her hair tangling around in her face, flipping back, and she closed her eyes and just danced, ignoring the boys and girls dancing around her and trying to dance with her.

The music was still pounding, but her eyes snapped open, sensing something new. And suddenly she was no longer in the Bronze, but running, at full slayer speed, through one dark cemetery after another. She hurdled gravestones, startling a vamp who didn't even know he was dead until she was past, tasting his ash in her mouth. And, in spite of it all, it tasted good. Sooty and vaguely metallic.

Then she was panting in her old bedroom, wide-eyed.

"Okay, those are _so_ my pants."

She spun to face the other Chosen One behind her, and then looked down to see that she was, indeed, wearing leather pants. Still breathing heavily, she looked up again to watch Faith as she stood across the bed. She looked as though she had been dancing, too, the pulse in her neck throbbing just visibly, her hair wild and flecked with vampire ash. Thank god she wasn't wearing those pants from the club, though! Just regular smooth, black leather. Like Buffy's.

"Good to see you, Faith. Wore my special pants just for you."

"Gee, thanks, B. Been slayin'?"

"A little."

"I can tell."

"Nothing I couldn't handle."

"Sure, B." Faith flipped her hair back, swept her dark eyes around the room, and brought them back to Buffy. "So...why do we always meet here over your bed?"

"Mind out of the gutter, Faith. You think I'm in control here?"

"Sure don't know who is."

Buffy watched the dark slayer, thinking that she looked a little wiser, a little older.

"That hurts, B. Just hadn't had time for that facial, you know." Faith heard her thoughts and stuck her bottom lip out in a mock pout that made Buffy smile, until both slayers heard something from under the bed between them and went on full alert.

"Um, B. Does your bed usually growl?"


	2. Chapter 2

Buffy rolled over, looked at the clock, and groaned. Way too early. And no way she was going back to sleep. She went over to the window seat and looked out into the early morning. Or was it late night? Wired, she felt as though see for miles, every silvery blade of grass, all the demons of Cleveland waiting for her. See all the way to New York City.

Well, maybe not that far. She didn't need to see Faith, anyway, to know she had been there in the dream and was awake now. Not to go all American Tale, but they were probably looking at the same bright star. Without all the singing. And just a little more baggage. But just a tote now, or maybe a makeup kit's worth of baggage. They were working on it. Which of course, was the helpful thing about distance.

And the less helpful thing about slayer dreams that go muddying the waters with dancing, and slaying, and beds, and growling.

God, she needed to slay something!

Throwing on some clothes and shoes, her stake secure in her waistband against the small of her back, she crept out of the house and ran.

* * *

In the Big Apple, Faith _was_ looking at that same bright star as she sat up in her bed, though not thinking about any Disney movies. Instead, she thought about the blonde slayer who had been so close to only moments before. They'd been there before. Before another of Faith's fuck-ups.

_Least I wasn't bleeding all over B's sheets this time._ _Finally stopped twisting that knife._

Not exactly hugs and kisses, though. They trusted her enough to send every smart-mouthed chick from a bad home her way, so she wasn't going to fuck it up. But the Chosen One could still get a stick up her butt. Exhibit A: rallying the troops for the battle with the First. So Faith knew she was smart to get outta Dodge, be that distant cousin slayer you see at family reunions. Being around B just made it a little too easy to fall into old habits.

_Course maybe she's changed. Sportin' the leather, after all. Dead giveaway. _

_Won't say she didn't do it justice. Always been a nice perk of the gig...all that slaying gives a girl a nice ass, yours truly no exception. _

She shook her head. Slayer dreams just weren't her thing. She didn't have a G-man to decode them for her, and had always been surprised the slayer in her wouldn't be a straight talker. From what she'd picked up from the Scoobs, slayer chick was less on the mysterious shit and more into the growling, like B's bed.

Which reminded her that she never did get to slay whatever was under there before she started awake. Poking her head in to check on Ang, and reassured by her heavy breathing, Faith slipped out to find a demon to kill.

* * *

Giles was surprised to see a familiar face downstairs that morning. As nocturnal fighters, slayers weren't usually early risers, meaning that, even in a houseful of young women, Giles could usually count on a quiet morning with a cup of hot tea and the paper. And he knew Buffy was no exception to the slayer rule, having more than once seen her come down, growling for coffee when he was already three hours into his books.

But this morning he found her up with the sun, awake and staring thoughtfully into the early morning light from her chair on the deck. He knew she must have heard him come down, and sure enough, she swung her head around to smile in at him as he puttered with his tea. He watched the girl—no, woman, he corrected himself—who was, for all intents and purposes, his daughter. The blonde out there, with her feet propped up, watching the sky, was a far cry from the girl he'd first met so many years before in the library, though Buffy's destiny had given her a certain gravitas even then.

Now, most afternoons, he could find her in the training room leading the new slayers in exercises meant to harness their raw power. While she still left most of the "Watchery stuff" to him and Dawn, she was a leader to those girls—the subject of their devotion and even a little crush here and there. A far cry from the authoritarian impulses that stress and depression had driven her to in her battle with the First. No doubt several still chafed under her maternal eye (and how could Giles but smile that she'd picked up a few of his meticulous tendencies after all those years of seemingly-ignoring him!). But so long as Willow made sure that Faith brought in the—how did Buffy once put it?—_zestier_ slayers, things seemed to be working out just fine.

His tea ready, Giles tucked a tome under his arm and went out to share the morning with his former slayer. Buffy looked over at him, and he saw a little red around her eyes. Noticing now that she was wearing running shorts and a sports bra, he wondered how long she'd been up. But then Buffy smiled and, her natural volubility taking over, began chatting about the day, her planned outing with Dawn later (a little Xander present-shopping), the progress of the slayers, another one Will had discovered late in the day yesterday in Chile who would be brought in as soon as Kennedy could fly down and pick her up.

* * *

"So, Red, this one's only got, like, 3 pairs of leather pants in her wardrobe...are you sure you really needed to pull me in?"

"Ha, ha." Willow snarked back, mouthing "Faith" to her girlfriend as she came in from training to grab a shower.

"I'm just sayin', I think B's gettin' a little too Laura Ashley over there. But, if she wants to avoid the spice, I'm ok with that."

Faith and Willow both knew it wasn't exactly Buffy's doing. Once Willow had located Angie, she had sent Faith to find her before Buffy even met her, on the hunch that there are some things the dark slayer was just better at.

And, she wouldn't lie, Willow wanted the chance to keep tabs on Faith through these periodic updates. She had felt Faith's reformation, seen her troubled aura working to shake free of past mistakes. Ok, a lot of past mistakes. But Faith was working on it and Willow wanted to help. Especially since Willow knew Faith wasn't that different from Kennedy in some ways: a little stubborn, a little impulsive. Buffy and Kennedy had butted heads a time or two about training, so Willow thought it would be safest to keep Faith, who had more history with a capital "H" with Buffy, occupied elsewhere in a way that suited her talents.

Of course, Willow knew Faith knew this. And Faith knew she knew she knew this. And Buffy probably knew, too. But no one was complaining yet.

"How is Angie doing?"

"5 x 5. Had to regulate a little bit at first to keep her from chargin' in like a crazy person in every fight, but she's better now."

"Sounds like someone else I know."

"Yeah, yeah, but at least I always looked out for numero uno. First rule: don't die, remember?" Faith paused, remembering when Buffy told her that, trying to make the younger slayer feel good about running after Kakistos killed her Watcher. In retrospect, maybe there should have been more time for numero dos, too, but what can you do. "Ang was a little lacking in the self-preservation instincts. We're workin' on it, tho."

"When do you think she'll be ready to come to Cleveland?"

"I'd say the Golden Girl can have her in a few weeks." A pause. "So, we good?"

Willow smiled, knowing the other Chosen One wasn't much for phone conversations. At that moment Buffy called out Kennedy's name as she came down the hallway, wanting to talk to the other slayer about their patrol arrangements during Kennedy's trip.

"Oh, sorry, Will. Didn't know you were on the phone. Is Kennedy around?" The blonde looked like she'd just come from the training room: a little sweaty, muscles still tight from the workout she'd taken the girls through, bright-eyed in the way slayers get when they've had a good fight. Willow nodded towards the shower and Buffy turned to knock on the door.

"That B?" Faith could hear the familiar voice. Buffy turned back towards Willow, picking up the husky slayer's voice, and stared for a moment at the phone. Buffy wondered whether they should talk about the dream. Was it even a slayer dream? There hadn't been anything particularly clear in terms of prophecy, no impending doom that announced its plans to take over the world.

Turning her mind back to Willow and the phone, Buffy realized that Faith had said goodbye and was no longer on the line. She turned to find Kennedy.


	3. Chapter 3

"Buffy, are you about rea..."

Dawn didn't have the chance to get out any more before she was nearly trampled as that same sister came tumbling out of the training room door, scowling ferociously and pushing a grimacing brunette slayer with a wicked cut on her arm in front of her. A cluster of alarmed girls was right on Buffy's heels. Scrambling to catch up, Dawn yelled ahead to the house for Xander to get the first aid kit. Xander popped out from underneath the kitchen sink, dropped his tools, and had retrieved the kitchen kit (one of five in the appropriately well-stocked house) before Buffy burst through the back door.

"What's the deal, Buff?" Xander asked, already in the middle of fanning the bandages, tapes, and ointments out on the table with the air of one who'd done so many times before.

"_Somebody _didn't follow instructions and got hurt." Buffy spat out, dabbing peroxide over Amy's gash with all the bedside manner of Nurse Ratched. Dawn and Xander shared a raised eyebrow over Buffy's bent head.

"She nearly skewered her!" one of the tag-along slayers chimed in. Dawn recognized Lisa as a good friend of Amy, the now-injured slayer. Amy had come to them about a month ago from the Faith School of Hard Knocks. Nonetheless, Dawn didn't think that Lisa's "she" was Amy.

"Ok, wait. Will somebody just ex..." Once again Dawn was cut off before she had a chance to finish. Once again by her sister.

"I _told _you we were just practicing the basics, no fancy stuff." She gritted out to the girl sitting on the kitchen table in front of Buffy, who glared back. Exasperated, Buffy turned to Xander and Dawn for a little support. "She went all Xena on me! She was trying to show off her sword skills, and kept pushing until she couldn't handle it and got hurt." Buffy ripped off a piece of tape and stuck it roughly on the bandage, where a little blood was already seeping through.

"Why didn't you pull back, Buffy?" The Chosen One muttered a short "shit!" under her breath as she heard the voice of her former Watcher, who had just come in from the study to investigate.

"It wasn't my fault!" Buffy shot back, earning her a disappointed look from the Englishman. Before Buffy could get any more out, Dawn took the opportunity to hustle the slayer onlookers, including the now-bandaged but still clearly pissed Amy, off for a surprise afternoon lecture on how to find demon lairs which would be held...well, someplace that wasn't the kitchen.

"What?" The blonde slayer shifted a little under the gaze of her former Watcher and her old friend. "Well, she should have moved faster." She finished lamely. "Ok, ok, I'll go apologize. Later." And that was all they were going to get out of her, as she flounced off to the training room again, bent on burning off a little steam.

Giles took a moment to wipe his glasses before returning to the study.

"Well, that was different." Xander chimed, placing the first aid materials back carefully in the kit for next time.

* * *

"Ok. So was I a total bitch earlier?"

"Um...duh!" Dawn looked up from the cologne counter to see Buffy shooting her a petulant look. "Well, it's true, and what sort of sister would I be if I lied?"

"A nice one." Buffy swatted the back of Dawn's head, then turned to stare back down at the bottles under the glass. "You know, I really don't know what happened. Normally, I'm all patience-girl. After all, I put up with you." This time, Buffy earned a swat in return. "Seriously, weapons practice is normally the funnest part of the day. We all like a good fight, and everybody was practicing alright until things just got out of control. It's like this _bring it on_ look came into Amy's eye, and the slayer in me just stood up and brought it."

Seeing Dawn's skeptical eyebrow, Buffy groaned. "I know, I know. Do you think I can fix it with ice cream tonight?"

Dawn regarded her for a moment, enjoying her opportunity to assume the role of the mature one in the relationship. "While there are many things that can be fixed with ice cream, I think you might be better off taking them out dancing or something. It's just a little less obvious than ice cream, I think. Plus, then you can take me." Dawn flashed her sister a winning smile and turned back to the task at hand. "So what are we going to get Xander?"

* * *

So dancing it was. Kennedy agreed to do a patrol while they were gone, and Buffy would do one after the club, so all the younger slayers were free to get their groove on. And if any of the girls knew Buffy thought they were going to "get their groove on" they would have all stayed home. As it was, a few of the girls gave Buffy a wide berth, but, all in all, Buffy's earlier apology to Amy seemed to have filtered through the ranks and mostly smoothed things over. It was hard to be mad at Buffy when she gave everyone the night off of patrolling, got them into the coolest club in Cleveland (which is impressive when you're in Cleveland), and generally seemed back to her funny, girlie self.

Dawn sat on the edge of the couch next to Buffy, Willow, and Xander, surveying the dance floor, mostly filled with dancing slayers and a few partners they'd grabbed from the crowd. Dawn watched for cute boys and enjoyed the feeling of being young again.

Not that she was old. But sometimes, giving lectures to the slayers as Giles' Watcher-in-training, she felt light-years older than the slayers, even though only two or three years separated many of them from her. Well, that, and the fact that being the Chosen One's sister got her a little deference from the new girls. And distance.

Of course, all of the slayers were older too, like Buffy, by virtue of their destiny.

And come to think of it, she was pretty old herself as the Key.

But not tonight! There would be no English sweaters, tea, and jackets with elbow patches for this girl! With a careless wave to Buffy et al., she took off across the room towards a boy who'd just looked her way, determined to do something young and dumb before the night was over.

Seeing her sister go, Buffy shared a smile with her old friends. The blonde slayer even felt a little giddy herself. She was trying hard to relax and pay attention to Xander, who was regaling them with some story involving his girlfriend, a romantic dinner, and a baked Alaska mishap that seared off half his arm hair. She and Willow were supposed to be watching for said girlfriend, and it wasn't long before Willow spotted the petite blonde woman walking their way. After saying her quick hellos to the girls, Vanessa abruptly pulled Xander from the couch and straight to the dance floor.

"Have you ever noticed that most of the girls he picks look sort of like..."

"Don't finish it, Will. You're either going to say Anya or me, and the fact that it could be either one of us is sort of disturbing." Willow giggled a little and gave Buffy her best innocent smile, to which Buffy replied with a mock-glare.

Willow looked pointedly at Buffy's bouncing knee. "You know you're free to get with the dancing." Buffy guiltily stilled her leg. "Yes, just leave me here in a corner after having sent my girlfriend away. Oh no, don't you worry your pretty head about little old me, I'll manage," she finished with a theatrical wistful look.

"No, no, I'll stay..." Buffy started, still staring at the dance floor, before she noticed that the redheaded witch was giving her a hard time. "Thanks, Will! I'll just be over there!"

* * *

A while later, Vanessa turned Xander loose to flop back down on the couch next to Willow as she got some drinks for the three of them.

"You know, Xander," Willow began, "I really didn't know that the Snoopy Dance was the appropriate rhythmic response to "It Wasn't Me."

"Well, Willow, your girlfriend is clearly not teaching you the finer points of booty-shaking then. That...and I'm kind of a one-dance guy. Take me as I am, ladies." On cue, Vanessa returned with frothy beverages, confirming Willow's liking for Xander's new girl. She was good for him, in a firm, getting-past-Anya sort of way. And she allowed him to do the Snoopy Dance to a Shaggy song, which kept Xander Xander, and Willow happy. Yes, she was good for him.

Even though she looked like she was going to smack him at the moment. Willow snapped out of her thoughts at Vanessa's expression and saw that Xander was staring intently at the dance floor. Specifically at a certain blonde slayer currently occupying it.

"Hello, Xander? Eyes here, babe." Xander instantly looked sheepish, but found his eyes drawn back, a puzzled expression on his face. And then Willow and Vanessa were joining him. Willow's head cocked as she saw her blonde friend...well, dancing is the word, but having sex standing up in a public place with your clothes on is what it looks like, apparently. The blonde slayer was surrounded by a crowd of men and women (several of the bolder slayers, too, Willow noticed), doing a fairly good impression of the sexy dance she'd done with Xander ages ago, but this time with everyone around her. Only Buffy looked like she was a thousand miles away.

"Hello, bi-curious Buffy." Xander whistled. This time, he earned no frown from the others. Buffy's actions were objectively whistle-worthy, no matter what your persuasion. Only, Willow thought to herself, that does not look like Buffy.

Xander was quick to give voice to her thoughts: "Did Faith and Buffy switch bodies again?"

"Well, she did crimp her hair..."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: A warm thanks to all those who are reading. And my particular thanks to those who are reviewing...always much appreciated.

* * *

A thousand miles away, Faith was very much still in her body. But she wouldn't have turned down having Buffy's body there, too, at the moment, if anyone had asked.

Faith had told Willow the truth. She really _had _thought that Ang was getting better with the whole impulse-control thing. For the past month, Ang had been listening to Faith, planning ahead, waiting for her right moment to attack a demon even if it meant retreating and coming back later. While Faith would have vehemently denied being Plan Girl herself (and probably done something rock-stupid to prove her bona fides), she'd be damned if she wouldn't make sure that Ang didn't make the same mistakes Faith did when she was first called.

And it wasn't that Faith didn't enjoy a good wailing on a demon. She was all over that. But, as Faith looked across the room, past the four demons she was dealing with, to Ang wailing away on her one, Faith was fully in favor of more of the share-and-share-alike plan they'd agreed on and less of the not-helping-fellow-slayers-in-arms plan.

Faith grunted as one of the creeps with lizard skin and acid spit landed a burning glob on her shoulder.

_Why do they always have to have acid spit?_ _Man, I have sucky karma!_

Guessing she would just have to play the hand she was dealt, Faith steeled herself to be her own backup. Not the first time. Tucking her head and tightening her fights, she grinned for the fight. Five on one wasn't bad odds. If you're the slayer.

"Didn't your mother tell you that it's not nice to spit?" A quick jab at the demon to her right, catching him in what might have been his nose, or his ear. "Not that mine did." A brutal kick at the head of one in front of her snapped his neck, and sent her spinning into a roundhouse that sent another one into a stack of bricks with a sickening crunch. "She was too busy shootin' up." A backhand just in time for one that was trying to sneak up on her blind side. There was a sizzling string of spittle across her knuckle as the demon reeled, but she hardly felt it. "But the point being, I learned it somewhere. So you could have, too." A triumphant uppercut that made the slayer in her roar with pleasure as lizard-guy went flying into the alley corner.

Finding her opponents either dead or already scurrying back into the night, the dark slayer looked around for something else to fight. Seeing Ang still going to town on one sorry, pulverized demon ass, Faith was across the room in two seconds, steamrolling through the barely-standing demon so that Ang's last punch met only air.

"Hey! Get your own!" Ang was at Faith's side in a second, clearly pissed at having her toy taken away.

"You can't finish it? I will." Faith growled out, sliding her knife into the demon's gut. The younger slayer pulled on her shoulder, yanking Faith around to face her and the punch she'd aimed right at Faith's nose.

"What the fu—"

* * *

_Buffy!_

The blonde's head snapped up, eyes coming back into focus as they narrowed in on Willow across the room.

_I'm sorry! I tried to catch your attention, but..._ Willow's words paused in her mind, before rushing on. _I think we've got a situation_. Buffy looked confused, then followed the direction of Willow's nod to see the fight that appeared to be brewing towards the edge of the dance floor. The blonde extricated herself from the tangle of sweaty bodies and made her way towards two slayers who were seriously invading the personal space of another group of four girls. As Buffy got closer, she could tell it seemed to have something to do with a boy Kelsey and Iaen had been dancing with, who also happened to be the boyfriend of one of the other girls. And it wasn't helping matters that Kelsey and Iaen were being a little cocky about their conquest.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Buffy muttered, trying to stick her arm in between the impending girl fight. With a look of "I'm so sorry!_"_ towards girlfriend and pals, she wrapped an arm around Iaen's middle and tried to corral the two slayers, who were now beginning to draw the support of several others that had picked up on the tense scene.

Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy saw girlfriend reach an arm across her to grab at Iaen. "That's not a good ide..." Before she could finish, she felt Iaen strain against her. While holding a normal person back would have been easy, containing a slayer was not, and Buffy had to fight to keep the enraged girl in check. Kelsey took the opportunity to step up and give girlfriend a push on her chest. Or what would have been a push, had Kelsey not been a slayer. As it was, girlfriend went tumbling back several feet, nearly knocking over the girls she was with.

"Kelsey!" Buffy's voice was sharp and Kelsey shot her a quick "I'm sorry. Sort of." look. But, in watching Kelsey, Buffy had taken her mind off the slayer still struggling next to her. Iaen, seeing what Buffy could not, which was a whole pack of girls about to rush the slayers, took the opportunity to elbow Buffy in the ribs so that she could get free to meet them.

"Hey!" Buffy staggered back a little from the unexpected blow, knitting her brows in frustration.

And then everything went to hell.

* * *

It had not been pretty, but between Buffy's strong-arming and a few judiciously-sprinkled immobilization spells from Willow, they managed to get all fifteen slayers out the door before the police got there. Considering the damage that could have been done with slayers in a bar fight with regular people, Buffy counted herself lucky that it mostly just boiled down to a black eye or two, some ripped clothes, and a few bruises Buffy was sure she had left herself in the process of grabbing some of the slayers who were a little more reluctant to go.

Giles had voiced an appropriate "Dear Lord" when he saw the lot of them pile back into the house, surly looks all around. Thankfully, Dawn stepped in to take the slayers back to their dorms before he could ask them what happened.

Of course, it didn't take him long to launch in long after they left. Willow and Xander flopped down on the couch and tried to explain it in voices that were tired, a little bit angry, and a little bit bewildered. Buffy, meanwhile, was still seething, pacing back and forth across the room and interjecting comments about just how stupid the whole situation was.

"Wish I knew what to tell you, Giles. Everything was fine and then, boom, it wasn't." Xander plucked with disgust at his shirt, which had gotten pretty thoroughly doused with somebody's beer in the middle of the melee. Vanessa's had been in the same shape, since she'd been in the unfortunate position of bringing back drinks for the rest of them when the fight broke out. He'd had to drop her off at her home, which ruined any of his boyish hopes for the night.

"What were they thinking! You can't just go around getting in fights with normal people!" Buffy's voice cut in, exasperated.

"I agree." Giles seconded his former slayer, sharing her perception about what was the worst in all this mess. "Buffy, you were close to where it started, weren't you? Did you see anything?"

"Looked like it was just about some stupid boy! And he wasn't even that good looking—he had a uni-brow, for crying out loud!"

"Well, their taste in men aside," Giles went on, trying to keep Buffy focused, "did you see anything else to provoke Kelsey and Iaen to act like that? I would say it's fairly out of character for those two."

"You mean, other than the fact they had some serious 'roid rage going on? No. I was a little busy trying to keep Iaen in check, though, to do a detailed psychological profile on them, Giles."

"Roid rage?" The Watcher's puzzled expression was quickly met by an explanation from Xander.

"She means steroid rage, like when big, muscle-bound guys become a little too into their steroids and start acting all aggressive. I saw it in a few guys back in high school. One day they'd be fine and then next time you'd see them they'd have more muscles than Arnold and be acting really weird." As Giles nodded thoughtfully, Willow suddenly sat upright on the couch.

"Oh! Oh! Sort of like Buffy tonight!"

"Excuse me?" Giles looked quickly from Willow to Buffy, who had an equally puzzled look on her face. Willow realized she'd said a little more than she wanted to, but wouldn't be let off the hook this time.

"Well, Buffy, you _were_ doing the sexy dance with lots of girls tonight."

"Geez, Will, I was just dancing!" The blonde slayer threw her arms up in the air as if to ask the ceiling why they were talking about her when the whole thing was clearly not her fault.

"Gonna have to side with Willow on this one, Buff...kind of a different sort of dance for you." Xander watched the still-pacing slayer carefully.

"What's with you two? Is it because they were girls?" She turned abruptly towards the redhead. "Gotta say, Will, you're the last one I'd expect to link girl-on-girl dancing with Hellmouthiness." Willow sputtered a little, trying to backtrack. This was not the way she wanted to talk about this, and not the time to be having this conversation with the clearly-agitated slayer.

"No, Buffy, I didn't mean..."

"Forget it." Buffy cut her off, grabbing her coat and a stake. "I've gotta go relieve Kennedy." And with that, she was gone, leaving the others staring at the door.

* * *

Buffy ran all the way to the older section of town, hoping that Kennedy had left a little action for her. She did _not_ want a quiet night tonight.

Hearing the sounds of a fight in the distance, Buffy sped up, pulling the stake from her waistband in anticipation as she entered the cemetery. Rounding one tomb, she could see the fight Kennedy had on her hands. The brunette was battling nine vampires. They didn't have her pinned, and Buffy could see she was clearly enjoying herself, but she also wasn't winning. Within a few seconds, Buffy had taken out one of the circling vamps and joined the other slayer in the middle.

"Got enough to share?"

"If you must." Kennedy let out a soft grunt as one vampire took advantage of her momentary distraction to land a kick to her ribs. "But don't be cramping my style."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Buffy said, feeling the slayer in her come out to play, enjoying the feeling of strength in every kick and punch, the thrill of danger in the now eight-to-two odds. It felt good to finally let it go in a way she couldn't when training the younger slayers. Or wasn't supposed to. The thought of this morning's sword incident flashed through her mind. She pushed it aside to launch another flurry of punches and then drove home her stake.

Seven to two. She spared a glance over her shoulder for the other slayer and felt a slow rumble of appreciation in her throat as she saw the other girl landing blow after beautiful blow. Despite their occasional disagreements, Kennedy always had been a good fighter, one Buffy enjoyed sparring with. Their eyes met through the dust of another vamp—six to two—and Buffy fought her way over to the other girl until they were battling nearly back to back. She was right there when Buffy needed her support to launch a flying kick. The vamp lurched back into a convenient tree limb.

Five to two. No, four, as another vamp went down in a dusty lack of glory at Kennedy's hands. Buffy's smile was cut off as she took a blow to the side of her head from a vamp resourceful enough to have brought a baseball bat. She dropped to her knees, feeling the dust of another of Kennedy's kills. Bat-boy was on her back instantly, steel-cold hands on her throat, tightening fast. She thrashed and twisted just enough to jab her stake back into him. Feeling his weight abruptly disappear, she coughed and turned over, panting, only to find herself pinned immediately by another who wasn't going to miss his chance with a slayer down. Buffy struggled, still shaking off the earlier stunning blow to her now-throbbing temple. His breath was metallic and wretched in her face. He tried to pin her arms back to lean in and find her jugular, but she managed to keep one free. Grabbing ahold of his throat, she strained to hold him back...until unexpectedly he was gone.

In the space where the vampire had been, Kennedy tumbled down on top of her, so that Buffy's hand now circled the other girl's throat. Panting a little, they stared at each other, eyes still dark from the excitement of the fight. Buffy could feel the other slayer against the length of her and groaned at how good it felt. Kennedy saw the blonde slayer's eyes roll back, and dropped her gaze to Buffy's lips as the warm hand on the back of her neck drew them closer.

Abruptly, a dog's bark from some nearby neighborhood cut through the night. Kennedy's eyes opened wider, and she gasped, jumping quickly away. Feeling the sudden cool breeze against her skin, Buffy's breath stopped, realizing what had almost happened. Without a word, the brunette slayer ran off into the night.

_Shit!_


	5. Chapter 5

"Faith, wake up!"

"Wha--?" There was rustling on the line as the husky-voiced slayer sat up in bed. "Do you habe any idea what dime it is?"

"I fucked up, I really—" Kennedy paused for a moment. "What's wrong with your voice?"

"Ang broke my dose."

"What'd she do that for?"

"Fuck if I dow." Faith sighed. "Why're you calling me, Kenn? Whassa matter...Red kick ya oudda bed?" The older slayer's comment, unwittingly cutting to the heart of the matter, snapped Kennedy back to the very shitty situation at hand.

"She would if she knew." Kennedy took a deep breath, trying to cool down, think about this rationally. "I can't believe this, but I nearlyhadsexwithBuffytonight." The last part came out in a rush, and brought back with it the sensations of the older slayer's body under her, which generally nullified any attempt to consider this whole situation calmly.

"Damb." Faith let out a low whistle. "B was inda that?"

"Focus, Faith. I nearly had post-slayage sex with _Buffy_. _I'm_ not supposed to be into that!" Kennedy rubbed her hand hard across her face, letting out a long breath. "I don't know what's wrong with me. How could I do that to Willow? I _love_ Willow."

"Red's gonda go all witch-fu on your ass if she finds oud." Faith agreed. "So...you habe a thing for—"

Knowing where the other slayer was going, Kennedy was quick to cut her off. "No!"

"Whya tryin' to jump her?"

Kennedy groaned. "That's what I don't know. Maybe I can chalk it up to your patented hungry-and-horny theory." Kennedy's voice rose, looking for some way out of the mess that did not involve (a) Willow leaving her or (b) Willow turning her into a rat. But she sighed, "I don't know, though. It's not like we haven't slayed together before, and, while I appreciate a pretty girl as much as the next person, _nothing _like this has happened before." Kennedy paused again, closing her eyes and trying—and failing—not to think too much about the images there. When she spoke again, her voice had lowered a little as Kennedy fought to pull herself out of the earlier battle and its aftermath. "Faith, I _wanted_ Buffy. I wanted her, and I was going to have her on top of every damn gravestone in that cemetery if I hadn't snapped out of it at the last minute." Kennedy couldn't resist going further, spreading a little of this blame around: "And she would've been right there with me, Faith. I could see it in her eyes. I tell you, it was all slayer in there, and Buffy's slayer knew what she needed."

Faith considered that for a moment, then went on. "Whad now? You gonda tell Red?"

In a dimly-lit street somewhere in Cleveland, Kennedy quickly shook her head. "I don't think I can do that. And she doesn't really need to know anyway...nothing actually happened." Faith snorted a little at that, but let the younger slayer continue. "I don't know what else to do, Faith. I love Willow, I really do." A breath. "So...I'm going to go have some incredible sex with her and then get as early a flight as I can tomorrow morning to go pick up some slayer in Chile."

"And avoid the hell oudda B?"

"That's the plan."

* * *

From the looks of the graveyard she was standing in, Buffy figured she was probably in Sunnydale again. Good ole safe, sane Sunnydale. Admittedly short on people at the moment, but, then again, most normal people don't really frequent cemeteries at night.

And, Sunnydale being her first, and, therefore, favoritist Hellmouth, she knew it wouldn't be too long before something came out of the night, looking for the slayer. Even in dreams, these things were predictable. And then she saw Faith. Without a word, the dark slayer charged at her, shoulder low so that her impact carried the two of them back into the hard marble wall of a mausoleum.

"I swear to GOD! If one more person I know attacks me today, I am seriously going to start taking this personally!"

"Don' ged your panties 'wisted, B. Not attackin'" Faith motioned over to an axe now sticking out of the tree a few feet behind where Buffy had been standing only moments before. "Savin'. Could be nicer about it, too, B." Having the brunette chide her was annoying, but, after seeing the ax, Buffy did have to admit that she had a point. Looking over Faith's shoulder into the night in every direction, she could see no one and sense nothing.

"So, B. Heard ya wanded to jump Kennedy's bones earlier." Nevermind the axe, Faith was focused on needling her blonde counterpart. Seeing Buffy's grimace, she knew what Kennedy had said earlier was true. Faith pushed the blonde a little further. "Glad to see you're enjoying the funner part of the old H & H. And still in leather pants, I see." She accentuated her point by pressing even more of herself against the still-pinned, now leather-clad slayer, and raised an eyebrow at the slightest response she saw flickering through Buffy's normally controlled expression, the little tightening of muscles against her. _Damn, B! Didn't know you had it in ya!_

"Get off, Faith!" With a blink, the look was gone, and Buffy pushed Faith back a foot or two to get free. No way would she admit anything to the grinning slayer who still stood too close for comfort.

"Okay, okay," Faith backed away, raising her hands as if to say "don't shoot the messenger," "but whad's Red gonda think?"

Buffy groaned. _Willow's going to kill me!_ _What the hell was I thinking?_ To Faith, she spat out a short "nothing happened." Faith sat back on her heels, enjoying the discomfort on the older's girl's face. Buffy knew she'd blown it, she just didn't know how. While slaying _did_ provoke the sort of response that a fat-free frozen yogurt just wasn't always going to fulfill, Buffy still couldn't understand how she and Kennedy had gotten so close to—you know.

Faith kept pushing. "I'm the firsd one da suppord blowin' off a little steam, bud don' know I would've starded wif Red's girl."

Buffy glared at her, knowing full well how much the other slayer liked to push her buttons, but still not being able to stop herself from getting upset. Looking at Faith, however, pulled Buffy out of her own drama long enough to notice that the other girl looked as though she'd been on the business end of somebody's fist recently.

"What's the matter, Faith? You sound like a commercial for allergy medication." Given how much the dark slayer had provoked her, she couldn't resist adding as a snide afterthought: "Your mouth been getting you in trouble again?"

"Wouldn' you like da know?" Faith wagged an eyebrow at her, but, in response to the blonde's still-waiting look, went on: "Short version: you're nod the only one gedding hid by people she knows."

Buffy filed that one away to ask more later. Right now, it seemed like they had first better figure out who was trying to hack a slayer in two. The axe buried in the tree told them nothing. Looking at each other and shrugging, they pulled out stakes and set off in the direction from whence it came. And, this being Sunnydale in a slayer dream, they did not have to walk long before the strange growling began again, as it had in the last dream they'd shared.

"I'm guessing that's not your stomach, Faith?"

"Don look ad me, B. You're the one's been slayin'." The dark slayer's body coiled a little tighter for a fight. Sparing a glance over at the shorter slayer beside her, she watched a slow, predatory smile spread over her face as she, too, went into full alert.

"And the fun just keeps on coming." Faith couldn't agree more.

* * *

Buffy's dream kept her tangled in sleep until morning this time. But even when she woke, then, still tense from the dream slay that never came, she did not get up. She heard Kennedy leave around mid-morning and stayed wrapped in her sheets, gripping them in her fists as she heard Kennedy's goodbyes to Willow. She heard the other slayers moving around the house and guessed that Giles must have given them the day off, given yesterday's dancing disaster. Smart man. Indeed, it wasn't until afternoon that Buffy heard a tentative tap on her door. She groaned into the pillow and knew Willow would be the only one who would dare.

She _so _wasn't ready for this.

When Willow entered, she found Buffy still in bed. Or what had been a bed. The whole thing looked as though a pack of wild animals had been at it, covers and pillows strewn everywhere. And in the middle of it, face down, was the blonde slayer.

"Buffy? I'm sorry to wake you but it's after noon and I thought we could, you know, talk...that is, if you're not mad at me."

Buffy sheepishly turned to look at Willow, finally meeting the other girl's eyes. And then all she could think was _Oh God! I almost slept with Kennedy!_ Clapping her hand over her mouth, she ran past her old friend and into the bathroom, throwing herself down in front of the toilet.

"Buffy! Buffy!" The redhead rushed after her. "Are you sick? Is it because of me? Cause I didn't mean to make you sick, I just wasn't thinking last night when I said what I said that I shouldn't have said. Unless you're sick because you're pregnant. You're not pregnant, are you?"

_Kennedy didn't tell her. She doesn't know. _Weakly, Buffy lifted her head and gave a small smile. "No, not pregnant, Wills. Just must've been something I ate." She pushed herself off the bathroom floor, rinsed out her mouth in the sink, and turned around to face her friend.


	6. Chapter 6

"You're sure you're okay, Buffy?"

"I'm fine, Will, really. Just didn't feel so good for a minute there. But, look, all better!" Willow gave Buffy a skeptical look that said she didn't quite believe the pasted-on grin , but Willow knew she would have to let it go for now. Buffy did have a tendency to try to play the Tough Girl at times, and Willow knew that wasn't going to change no matter what she asked or how she asked it. Which left the uncomfortable conversation she'd come into Buffy's room for in the first place. Taking a breath, she steadfastly refused to babble.

"Okey-dokey. So...Buffy, I just wanted to say that I'm really, really sorry if I made you mad last night. It's just that when Giles said something about acting unexpectedly I just thought, Oh! Buffy's dancing was unexpected, because it was, and Xander and I both noticed it." Her mouth rushed on ahead of her. "Not that it's wrong or anything, but I haven't seen you dancing like that before and it made me go a-ha! with the finger-point and everything, which I shouldn't have, then, because it would've been better to just talk to you first."

So much for not babbling. Buffy couldn't help but chuckle at the predictable rhythm of Willow's thoughts. And breath a little inward sigh that this conversation was not going to be as unpleasant as it could have been.

"I wasn't mad, Will. You just surprised me, that's all." Buffy continued to look down at her hands as the two girls sat across from each other on the end of the disheveled bed. "I must've been a little keyed up from the Jerry Springer version of Slayer's Night Out earlier. I'm sorry...I didn't mean to snap at you. You were just trying to figure out what was going on." Buffy had messed up this relationship before, and patched it up, and no doubt had a few other messing-up-and-patching-up cycles in between there, so she was determined to try to not let this expand into some distance between them. Not determined enough to talk about last night's episode with Kennedy, but determined nonetheless in a more-focused way, easier way.

"Is everything ok? I don't mean to be all repeato-girl, but the dancing was sort of strange for you. You were like a different person out there." Willow stretched out her mind a little towards the slayer, looking at the pulsing, violently-bright colors of her aura. Slayers always had bright colors, suggestive, no doubt, of the violence inherent in them, so this could just be the normal fluctuations of a agitated slayer who'd been in the middle of a bar fight last night. Willow knew about the whole mercurial thing first-hand from her lover. There was no way right now to know any different.

"If it's about the girls, Will, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe I am a little attracted to them some—"

"Buffy, it's not just about the girls...so long as you stay away from Kennedy, of course!" Her friend laughed and swatted her on the side of the leg. Buffy jumped off the bed, trying to be nonchalant as she moved to the window so Willow wouldn't see her flinch. In the cold light of day, she could only think how completely senseless the whole thing had been, and how much it was her fault for losing control. The redhead charged on behind her, oblivious to the blonde's internal guilt-fest. "Like I said, it was the whole dance. You were sort of making with the sexy, Buffy. And, not that you're usually a prude or anything, but you're usually not so, you know, Out There...no pun intended. That's sort of Faith's department."

Ah, Faith, her regular dream-partner these days. "Don't know what to say, Will. Maybe Faith knows something I don't." Willow snorted. "I know, I know, I'm not saying she's the poster-girl for virtue or anything, but, I have to say, it felt good out there on that dance floor. I've been a little tense lately, so maybe it was good for me to just be free for once." She finally looked over at Willow from across the room, searching for acceptance in her old friend's face, some sort of endorsement that it would be okay to let go a little. Alright, maybe she'd been pushing that one a little far lately, but everybody needs to run wild sometimes, don't they?

To her relief, Willow seemed happy with her answer, nodding in that sagey way she could that made Buffy feel, not for the first time, that Willow was the more mature one of the two. Which was comforting.

"Okay, Missy. But next time, you should let Xander and I know ahead of time. Vanessa nearly killed him for looking." Giggling, she pulled Buffy from her window seat and dragged her downstairs to meet the day.

* * *

Even though it was half over, Buffy was going to have to go on record that this was not her best day ever. Not as bad as yesterday, but a houseful of sullen slayers was nobody's idea of a picnic. Giles—gotta hand it to the Brits to know when to keep a lid on things—had forbidden the slayers from training or patrolling that night. Even though getting some action might have been the very thing they wanted at the moment—and Buffy could feel that need in a little knot at the base of her stomach when she passed by them in the halls—it was the very thing they were probably unequipped to handle, if last night was any indication. So they moped around the living room and kitchen, generally in everyone's way, until Giles threatened a lecture on the finer points of obscure demon languages. At which point, they sulked back to their dorm rooms and bitched among themselves.

Buffy, because she was older and supposedly wiser and, hey, had actually tried to stop the fight last night, headed straight for the solitude of the training room. She locked the door behind her.

As the sun slanting in from the windows near the ceiling shifted from afternoon to late afternoon, she stayed in there, going through every training routine she could think of, trying to wear herself out. And stop the voice in her head that kept punishing her for Kennedy. For cutting Amy, for not being able to stop the fight before it started, for letting Faith's comments get to her last night, for wearing those goddamn leather pants...the list just went on. And her body operated separately from it, pushing itself.

It was evening when she felt Willow's mind reach out to touch hers. _Buffy?_ The blonde pulled herself out of her routine and stood still, calming her mind enough to answer the witch.

_Buffy, we need you. Iaen's gone._

Buffy was still clad in sweatpants and a sports bra and still glistening with sweat when she burst into the living room. Dawn, Xander, Willow and Giles were all there, trying to interrogate the slayers who were also crowded in. A few looked jealously at Buffy, feeling the adrenalin still pumping in her from her workout.

"What happened? Where'd she go?"

Giles looked over at his former slayer and then back to the slayers in front of him. "That's exactly what we're trying to find out, Buffy. The girls aren't being very helpful, however." A few slayers looked sheepish, but many just looked like the defiant teenagers they were.

Dawn piped up, to fill Buffy in. "I went in there to check on them just a little bit ago, thinking we might order pizza or something, and that's when I noticed Iaen wasn't in there. Xander and I checked the house, and she's not anywhere around."

"Where is she?" Buffy's voice was low and dangerous in her throat as she held the eyes of younger slayers. After a tense moment, Lisa spoke up.

"Look, it's Giles' fault because he made us stay here. We couldn't do anything and it wasn't fair to punish everyone because some people started a fight."

"Yeah, I guess Giles was real wrong when he said not to go out and then one of the girls that _did_ start the fight goes out!" Xander argued back, earning him a nod of thanks from Giles.

"Where is she?" Buffy repeated again, even lower this time. Lisa held her eyes for a moment and looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself in time to instead answer Buffy's question.

"She went to patrol." The girl couldn't resist continuing: "That's not so wrong, is it? That is what we do, Buffy, in case you've forgotten."

"Oh, I haven't forg—" Buffy didn't get the word all the way out before the phone startled everyone. Giles moved over to answer it. Everyone listened to his "Dear Lord!" and "Are you alright?" and finally his "Yes, then. We'll see you shortly." As he laid the phone back in its cradle, he met a roomful of expectant eyes, waiting for some news of Iaen.

"Faith's been stabbed. She is hurt but alright, and she is on her way here. With Angie."

Buffy let out a breath. She _so_ didn't have time for this now. Grabbing a stake, she was out the door to find Iaen. Kelsey stormed after her. Deciding that now wasn't the time to try to stop and convince her to stay, Buffy let her come, knowing that she needed to get to Iaen fast before the younger slayer did something she regretted.

* * *

Buffy felt like she'd seen this movie before. Indeed, she'd found Kennedy in much the same situation the night before. Buffy and Kelsey both sped up at the distant sound of the fight, knowing that they _needed_ to get there in time and hoping the slayer in them could help them do that. A picture of athletic synchronicity, they vaulted themselves over the graveyard fence and hurtled over gravestones, seeing Iaen, about 200 yards away in the middle of ten circling vampires. They saw her fighting like a demon herself, punching out at her enemies so quickly she was a blur even to a slayer's eyes. But Buffy could see it wasn't going to be enough. Iaen staked one and two jumped on her, she threw them off and three were there. It wasn't going to be enough. The slayers were close enough to hear the snarling now, the vampires moving in for the kill. It took nine of them to bring her down, but they did. And Buffy knew she wasn't going to get there in time. As fast as she could run, it wasn't going to be fast enough.

She heard Iaen's final scream and joined it with her own: "No!"

The horde had already left Iaen's body crumpled in the dirt and turned to face them. Buffy knew she and Kelsey needed to regroup for a moment. Nine was too much to take on when she couldn't be sure whether Kelsey could handle herself. But when the other slayer pushed ahead of her, driving right towards the waiting claws, she had no choice but to follow.


	7. Chapter 7

Buffy nearly kicked the front door off its hinges as she burst in, carrying a barely-conscious Kelsey in her arms. Xander immediately ran to the kitchen table and, with a swipe of his arm, cleared it so that the blonde slayer could lay her burden down.

"Iaen's dead." Buffy's voice was raspy as her fingers worked quickly, exposing the deep cuts all over the younger slayer's body, the black and blue of a severely dislocated shoulder and bruised ribs. "Kelsey tried to get herself killed. Two of them had knives." She spared a glance for Xander and Willow, ready with bandages and medicine. She nodded as they handed her cloths to sop up the blood. On the table, Kelsey was breathing shallowly, and Willow felt the enormous current running through the girl as her slayer healing worked at a fever-pitch. The wounded girl writhed against Buffy's grip as the older slayer popped her shoulder back in joint. White-knuckled, Buffy kept her down. Finally, all the blood was wiped away and every wound covered with bandage after bandage. Buffy stepped back, knowing the slayer in Kelsey would take it from there.

"Buffy, you're hurt!" Willow's voice cut through the cloud in her head, and she looked down at herself, seeing the blood seeping from the gash running nearly the entire way down her arm and another on her thigh that was opened to the bone.

"Oh. I didn't realize. No hosp—" The adrenalin drained out of her, and the slayer turned itself to the business of self-preservation. Willow and Xander caught Buffy just as she crumpled to the floor.

* * *

It was nearing morning, but Xander, Willow, and Giles were still huddled around books in the living room, talking softly. They had sent the younger slayers back to their dorm room, with a warning that they stay there this time. Given that they'd just heard about Iaen, the warning seemed to be sticking this time, even if they still weren't happy about it. Willow glanced over at Buffy's still form on the couch and watched as Dawn placed a cool rag against her sister's face. Reaching with her magic, she saw Buffy's aura, even brighter and more disturbed than it had been that morning. Guessing that the slayer healing had kicked in into overdrive, she sighed and looked back at Giles, catching his worried glance over at Buffy before he met her eyes.

"Something's wrong Giles, I know it. The fight last night, Amy's behavior yesterday morning." She didn't even need to say Iaen's name, or mention the now-sleeping Kelsey on the other couch. Giles only nodded. Turning back to her books, Willow caught sight of a cab pulling up outside.

Xander, tired from long hours of worrying and books and finding nothing because they didn't know what they were looking for, had picked up where Willow had left off. "Yeah, something's wrong, but how are we supposed to know what. I don't see any entries in here for overly-aggressive, suicidal slayers." His voice was angry, and Giles took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes. The doorbell rang.

Willow was already halfway over to get it, and pulled the door open to find a somewhat-bruised, defiant Angie. And right behind her shoulder, the older, dark slayer Willow hadn't seen since after she had called her in for the big fight. Tonight, that fight seemed years ago, but Faith still had the same look of wariness she'd had then. Once kicked, she was still slow to believe she'd get a cheery reception, even after what they'd been through with the First—that's just the way Faith was.

Behind the wariness, Willow could also see that the dark slayer's face was drawn a little around her eyes. Giles, having followed Willow to the door, was quick to ask: "How are you, Faith? I am assuming you don't need medical attention because you got on a plane, but are you alright?"

Faith's face quickly took on a familiar _tough girl can handle herself_ look as she said "S'aight. Would've been better than that if little miss crazy over here," she hooked her thumb at the other girl staring sullenly off into space, "hadn't tried to pull some masochistic bullshit that nearly got her killed. I think she's defective or something."

"Faith, she's your mentee, not a lighter that won't spark." Xander shot from his post near the books.

Faith shot right back with a _duh_ look. "I know that, but there's somethin'..."

Xander cut her off before she could get any further: "Yeah, something you can't handle. So, like usual, you bring all your problems back for us. News flash, Faith: we've got lots of slayers here and more coming in all from over the world. Would've been nice if you could've managed your _one_."

This was exactly what she expected. And the nice thing about low-expectations, Faith had found, was that you were rarely disappointed. But damn it all, she was trying here! She took a step towards him: "Look, this is not my fault. I worked with her and it seemed—" Faith stopped mid-sentence to look over at the couch where Buffy lay. The blonde slayer had let out a small whimper in her sleep, the forces within her responding to the close proximity of the other Chosen One. Faith couldn't help but move towards her counterpart, whose deep wounds were clearly visible, though the healing had long since stopped the blood. "B?"

And, as she did, she noticed Dawn tense at her approach. Faith's mouth set into a line at that. Willow, watching Faith's face carefully, stepped in.

"She was hurt trying to save Kelsey." A nod to the other couch drew Faith's gaze momentarily off the now-restless blonde. The dark slayer's eyes widened slightly, seeing the other battered girl, wondering what the hell had happened before she'd gotten here. "She wasn't able to save Iaen." Faith's head whipped around to Willow. Iaen had been one of hers. As much of a bad-ass as all the ones they sent her...better fighter than most, though.

_Damn._

Willow had turned to the still-silent Angie, and Faith figured she was doing some of her witchy stuff on the young slayer, looking not really at Ang, but around her. Indeed, Willow was checking for any signs of enchantment, of poison. She saw nothing but the terrible brilliance of her aura. Deciding to try a more pedestrian tact, she shifted her focus to the girl herself.

"Angie, do you feel okay? Do you know why you're acting they way you're acting?" Angie gave her a cagey look, as if she wished she could be someplace else and not talking to these people she didn't really know in some godforsaken place thousands of miles from her home.

"I just saw demons. When I see demons, I kill them. It's plain as that. It's not my fault she couldn't keep up." Faith snorted at the last part, clearly about to step in and defend her status as the original bad-ass, thank you very much. But before she could, a hoarse voice from the couch chimed in.

"It's her slayer. She can't control it."

* * *

For about the fortieth time in the last thirty minutes, Giles laid his glasses down and pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to get everything straight. Buffy's theory was the only one they had at the moment, so they were trying to work with it. Bringing in some of the other younger slayers for questioning seemed to confirm what Buffy said. They spoke of impulses they could hardly contain: the need to fight, the need to argue and dominate, the need to have sex or to kill or whatever the situation demanded of them. Giles was not the only one to see the primal nature of what they were describing, all very consistent with everything Giles had ever read about the slayer.

Not the girl. The thing inside the girl that made her chosen.

The thing that was getting his charges hurt. Or killed.

Buffy stayed curled quietly on the couch, watching the interrogations and discussions as Willow, Xander, and Giles bandied ideas about. They quickly connected the bar fight, and the incident with Amy, and—the oldest slayer clenched her teeth—the fight tonight when she couldn't save Iaen. Faith had taken up residence at the other end of the couch...gingerly, given the stab wound, which, by her movements, Buffy could tell must be in her side and still be a little sore, though Faith had said nothing. The dark slayer stretched her booted feet out in front of her on the coffee table, feigning complete disinterest in the proceedings.

"There's one thing I can't understand, Buffy." Hearing her name, she turned to see Giles addressing her now that the younger slayers had been sent back to their dorms, this time with Dawn to make sure no one left. "You are a slayer, but you don't seem to be experiencing any of the effects of this." He glanced at Faith. "Or you either, Faith, for that matter."

"Don't know what to tell you, Giles."

"You are having no trouble controlling your slayer?" There was the slightest change in the pulse trembling in Buffy's neck, but only Faith's eyes were sharp enough, and focused enough, to see it.

"Nope. Me and slayer chick are good to go. This is me firmly in control."

Giles arched an eyebrow over at Faith, receiving the expected, nonchalant "You know me: 5 x 5" in response.

"Well, then, perhaps it's something with the new slayers. The ones activated during the battle with the First. We shall have to research it." He earned a groan from Xander, and, acknowledging it, continued, "But I think we have all done enough for tonight. There will be time tomorrow." His face clouded for a moment, and his next words were heavy. "After the funeral."

On that somber note, he, Willow, and Xander disappeared off to their rooms for some much-needed sleep.

Faith turned to Buffy, and slapped her hands on her thighs. "Well, I guess it'll be the couch for me, B." Then, a little more solicitously, standing up next to the blonde, "Do you need any help up?" Buffy came out of her reverie, sighed, and stretched out her injured leg. Stiff, but not too bad, so long as you didn't look at it. She shook her head and, looking up at Faith, slid her eyes down to the bandage peeking from underneath the bottom of Faith's shirt, just above her hipbone. Faith saw her gaze and lifted her top a little, revealing a flat muscled stomach bandaged on one side, with a fair amount of dried blood crusted on the gauze. Unconsciously, the blonde slayer's fingers reached out to brush it, and then slid across to the other scar marring Faith's skin.

"Yeah, B. You always leave something for a girl to remember you by."

Looking up into Faith's eyes, Buffy saw the brick wall that rose up in them. Or the chain link fence with barbed wire, depending on where you were from.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: My thanks again to those who are sticking with me on this. I appreciate your interest and kind words!

* * *

Buffy woke with a start, heart still racing from a dream she couldn't remember. Around her, she saw the destroyed bed. Groaning, she rolled over, hoping she could get back to the sleep she knew her body needed to heal. But, as she did so, she felt the warm wet of blood and the sheets sticking to her leg.

_Great._

She pulled back the sheets to examine the damage and found the wound, red and angry again. Easing herself off the bed, she moved slowly towards the bathroom, flicked on the lights, saw how bad she looked, and flicked them off again. There was still plenty of light for the slayer, and she pawed through the box of bandages. Too small. She couldn't remember if she'd asked Dawn to refill them after last time or not.

_Again, great._

She grabbed a towel and pressed it against her thigh to catch the blood. Wincing at the pressure, she made her way to the door and out into the hallway. She saw the thin sliver of light under Willow's doorway and heard her friend's voice talking softly. Buffy made her way across the hall to see if her kit was better stocked, but she stopped before she got to the door. At the head of the stairs, she looked down into the dark, feeling the other Chosen One there. She looked to the light in Willow's room, then back to the dark living room. She would use the kit from the kitchen and then come up to see why Willow was awake. Gingerly, the blonde slayer made her way down.

Buffy could sense Faith's eyes on her as she made her way quietly through the living room. In the moonlit kitchen, she pulled out the first aid kit that had seen too much action in the last few days and began to hunt around for a large bandage and some tape. The dark slayer was behind her almost before she heard her. Buffy didn't turn around as she heard Faith hop up with a slight grunt to sit on the table.

"Gotta say, B," Faith's voice was husky from sleep, "ain't missin' the leather." Buffy looked down at the t-shirt and panties she had gone to sleep in.

"Classy, Faith. Now if you're done checking out my ass, I'd appreciate some help here." She sucked in her breath as she pulled the towel away from her leg. It stuck a little. The other slayer was there with a "sure, whatever," taking the towel from her, and guiding her back to the table on which Faith had just been perched. Hands on either side of Buffy's waist, she helped the other girl up on the table. Buffy didn't protest, gritting her teeth against the pain as Faith washed away the blood.

Faith tried to keep it light. "Don't worry. Not coppin' a feel here." The blonde slayer said nothing, breathing quickly through her mouth in short little bursts. Faith looked closely at the wound: it _had_ been healing. Buffy'd ripped it open a bit on one end, but her thigh was hot as the slayer worked again to mend itself. "Think you'll live." She tipped the hydrogen peroxide bottle, and gave an apologetic look. "Sorry, B, but this is gonna sting like a bitch." Indeed, as soon as the cotton ball touched raw flesh, Buffy growled, her eyes wide and head back, covering her mouth with one hand.

"Easy... And, all done!" Faith tossed the cotton ball over into the trash and reached for the bandages. Both were silent as Faith covered the wound with accustomed skill. Faith could feel the blonde slayer's leg tense and hear the still-quick breaths. Some of them might have been her own. She dared a look up at Buffy's eyes, but it was too dark to tell whether they were all black or just looked that way as they stared back into Faith's. The younger girl held her breath and forced herself to make sure the tape was secure.

Smoothing the edges, she ventured: "_Are_ we in control, B?" She felt the thigh underneath her hands tense further and the blonde's breath caught. Buffy, meanwhile, was listening for any edge in the younger girl's voice. She found none.

"I am, Faith." She hopped off the table and on to her good leg just as Willow came down the stairs.

"Buffy?" She heard her friend's stage whisper through the living room. "Are you down here?"

"Yeah, Wills, I'm here. Just needed to do a little re-bandaging." The redhead made her way into the kitchen, turning on the light. She took note of Faith's presence, then turned back to the blonde.

"Buffy, it's Kennedy." Buffy's brows knit a little at the name. "Did she seem, you know, weird when you saw her last night?" Willow went on, not noticing Faith's small smile. "I called her because I thought, well, she's a new slayer. Relatively-speaking, I mean, since she's new but not _new_ in the way that the other girls are, but _new_ in the way that she's not as old as you two." She took a breath. "And anyway, so I called her tonight to see if she was okay and if she'd found the slayer that was supposed to be there, and I could tell she'd been slaying. She sounded sort of, um, short. Maybe a little horny." She looked over at Faith, then back to Buffy. "And I just wondered whether you noticed anything, because you slayed with her last, and, if there was something going on with her, you would've known it because you had seen what the others were like."

Buffy worked to keep her face blank. "No, I don't remember anything unusual. Just slaying like normal. Was a bigger group of vamps, but we didn't have a problem." She smiled reassuringly at her old friend. In a softer voice, she went on: "I'm sure she's fine, Will. We'll just ask her when she gets back, and we can keep an eye on her. Hopefully we'll have figured out the deal by then anyway."

Willow returned her smile and turned to head back upstairs. "Right, I'm sure you're right. She'll be back tomorrow evening, and we can just see then. Coming upstairs?"

"Be there in a sec. Just gonna put this stuff away and grab a few bandages to replenish my stash." As the redhead retreated up to her room, Buffy refused to look at the other slayer.

"You still haven't told her, B?" She sniffed a little at the other girl's silence. "She deserves to know, especially if something's wrong with her girl."

"Yeah, and just what am I going to say, Faith?" Buffy hissed back, "'Is anything wrong, Buffy?' 'I think there might be.' 'How do you know, Buffy?' 'Because I nearly fucked your girlfriend, Will.' I can't tell her that!"

"From what Ken told me, it wasn't just—"

"No, Faith." The blonde cut her off. "It _was_ me because I didn't stop it." Turning on her heel, she limped back upstairs to bed.

_What if you couldn't stop it, B?_

* * *

The house was quiet after the afternoon's funeral, as one might imagine. Everyone dealt with it in their own way: Willow took to the computer to try to find out why this was happening. Giles turned to his books to look for some way to minimize the impact. Xander tried to help him, regretting his testiness from the night before now that he'd gotten a little sleep. A decision had been made to allow the younger slayers to use the training room, if that's the way they wanted to handle matters. Given their general agitated state, a number took up the offer, and Faith volunteered to stay with them to make sure things didn't get too out of hand.

Xander had just pulled another dusty tome off the arcanely-stocked shelves in the living room when Dawn and Buffy appeared beside him with their hands behind their backs.

"Ladies, to what do I owe this oh-so-welcome break from the books?" Buffy and Dawn smiled at each other before Dawn spoke up.

"Well, Xander, we know this hasn't been the birthday you expected—we had wanted to have a party and all, but," she paused a moment, "but, we didn't want you to think we forgot, so we got you presents." With a flourish, the girls brought their gifts from behind their backs. In Dawn's hands was a beautiful, hand-tooled leather belt packed with new tools. Buffy revealed a brand new power saw, brandishing it in a way that revealed she had never handled power tools before and, in Giles opinion, should never be allowed within ten feet of them again.

Xander's eye would have watered if he'd been that sort of guy. Oh, what the heck, he was that sort of guy and it did water as he took the presents from his friends.

"Happy birthday!" the Summers girls chanted in unison. Xander looked around at Willow and Giles as if to say, "can you believe this?" Willow smiled back, then let him in on her gift.

"I've got reservations for you and Vanessa at a nice steakhouse. So go, eat, drink, and be merry! She'll be here to pick you up in about an hour."

"And I've bought you a bottle of wine for your table. Enjoy, Xander. And my best wishes for this year." Giles reached a hand out to clasp the young man's shoulder, like father to son.

Xander's head swiveled between his four friends and didn't know what to say, he was so happy. Willow made it easier for him.

"Now, shoo! You haven't had a shower and Vanessa's not going to take you unless you have one!" Happily obedient, Xander dashed upstairs to get ready.

* * *

Reluctantly, the rest of the group had settled back down to deal with the problem at hand after they'd seen Xander off in his nice dress shirt and slacks. While there was a ton about the things the slayers slayed, Giles and Dawn were discouraged to find so little about the slayers themselves. They were, after all, supposed to be watchers (or at least formerly and soon-to-be). It was their job to watch the slayers, which one would think meant knowing more about how they ticked. But, aside from a very unhelpful slayer's training manual, and diaries that, again, covered more action than protagonist (perhaps due to their general, depressingly-short length), there was little to go on.

Willow had had slightly more luck, but was no happier than Giles and Dawn about it. Everything seemed to point towards her spell that had made the potentials into actual slayers. That was the only thing that it could be. But, since no one had ever done such a spell before, there were no records of it having this sort of effect. Which told Willow that, once again, the problems had come from her spell. And, once again, she didn't know how to clean up the mess she'd made.

But something still had to be done soon. They couldn't risk what happened to Iaen happening to any of the others. They would never be able to keep the slayers under tight enough leash, especially not if their control worsened.

"Absolutely not, Giles. There has to be another way." The blonde slayer stood with arms crossed, glaring at her former watcher.

"If there is, Buffy, I don't know what it might be." He tried to keep his own feelings on the matter in check. There just wasn't another option right now, and at least this would buy them some time. "I understand your feelings, and you know I'm sorry about the way this worked out before, but we will be more careful this time. There will be none of the secrecy." He didn't say "none of the betrayal" because he didn't need to.

"Giles, I can't be a part of this. You don't know what it felt like." Her eyes pleaded with him to remember what this had cost their relationship. The Englishman looked down and sighed.

"I know, Buffy," his voice was quiet, "but the muscle relaxers did work, even on your slayer strength. It may be the only thing we can do to keep them from becoming a danger to themselves."


	9. Chapter 9

As expected, Giles' plan went over like a lead balloon with the younger slayers. A lead balloon with some anvils tied to it for good measure. Buffy had refused to sell the plan for him, staying sullenly in the living room with Willow and the books. Faith had been keeping an eye on the slayers when Giles came to the training room to give his speech, and she was pretty skeptical about it, too. But more about its ability to really work on the hyperactive slayers than about whether it should be done. As long as no one was sticking a needle in her arm, it wasn't her problem.

Nonetheless, when Giles gave her that look that said, "a little support here," Faith shrugged and obliged with a perfunctory "you have to take it, and, if you don't, you'll be making nice with my fist in your face." It wasn't exactly what Giles had in mind, but, hey, beggars can't be choosers. That, and, he had to admit, Faith's suggestion appeared persuasive. Especially because he didn't know she'd been doing more than just supervising all afternoon. After a good spar, a few good bruisings, and one hole in the wall that Xander was going to have to fix, the younger slayers were inclined, like all good fighters, to appreciate the threats of their betters.

The doses couldn't be ready until the following afternoon, however, so, as the day wore into night, the slayers were trouped into the kitchen for dinner, where an eye could be kept on them. Giles, Dawn, Faith and Buffy reconvened in the living room to assess where they were with the research. Which, depressingly, was not much further. Given the lack of prior occurrences of this sort of thing, they found themselves with little more than the younger slayers' own words—and actions—to go on.

Faith and Buffy were not in the mood for more books. The two prowled around the room, generally in everyone else's way, and casting looks towards the darkness outside. Their pacing was interrupted as Willow came in from the other room, phone dangling in one hand.

"Will?" Buffy quickly moved to her side, grateful for something to do, and concerned at her friend's expression.

Willow turned a puzzled face to Buffy. "She was supposed to be back tonight."

Giles, listening from the other side of the room, asked, "Is Kennedy alright?"

Willow still looked confused, "That's just it, Giles. I mean, I guess she is, but she missed her flight. I gave her all the info before she left and then last night on the phone and it's not like it's that hard to remember since it's not like she's having a great vacation down there." She looked over at Buffy. "She missed her flight. She said she found the slayer, but they're going to be back tomorrow evening now."

"I'm sure it's nothing, Will. Things happen. Maybe it took her longer to walk to the airport than she thought."

"Buffy, they have cars in Chile." Willow looked over at Giles. "She's okay, right? There's a perfectly logical explanation for this. What if she's having problems with her slayer, too, and that's why she didn't make it?"

He put on his best "father knows" smile and tried to reassure the young witch, "I'm sure everything's fine. It's better not to jump to any conclusions. And, even if she is affected—which we don't know—she has been a slayer for longer than many of the girls here, which means she's probably better at controlling it than they are." While not entirely happy about it, Willow put the phone back in the cradle and decided she would just have to wait.

Giles stayed standing, addressing the two slayers. "Now, Buffy, you said that you've been seeing bigger vampire gangs recently, so there's reason to believe the Hellmouth might be reacting to the problem with the younger slayers." Buffy nodded eagerly as the Englishman went on. "I think that we should talk about who will patrol tonight." Buffy kept nodding. "We clearly can't send any of the younger slayers, so it will have to be one of you two. The other one can stay here and watch the slayers."

_One._ The word rang in the minds of both slayers, and both instantly knew it _had_ to be her or she was going to climb the walls. Buffy eyed Faith, who pounced on Giles' words.

"Wait a minute, G-man. It's gotta be me. I _did_ my time babysitting this afternoon, and we all know I ain't the cuddly type." Faith stopped next to the smaller slayer. "And, besides, blondie here is gimpy, so it should be me." She reached over and jabbed a finger into the blonde slayer's thigh, right where she had carefully bandaged her the night before. Buffy cried out, immediately bringing both hands to her still-sore leg.

"Jesus, Faith!" Buffy gritted, while Dawn jumped out of her chair with a "Hey!"

The oldest slayer whirled on Faith and put herself right in the other girl's face, their bodies only inches apart. "Is that the way you want to do this, _F_?" Meeting the other girl's glare with one of her own, she landed a punch right into Faith's wound. The dark slayer let out a held breath and clutched her side.

"Ahem." Giles cut in, his voice even in spite of the tension in the room, "It appears patrol will just have to wait for this evening, as it would seem neither of you are in a position to slay." His voice went on with a warning to Faith, "Your attack on Buffy was not called for. You'll take the first watch over the slayers tonight." He nodded over at Buffy, never taking his eyes off Faith. "Buffy will relieve you halfway through."

* * *

Faith was royally pissed. This was not the way she wanted to be spending her night. Even little miss tight-ass was getting to work out in the training room now while she was stuck being a fucking nursemaid to some snotty girls. Xander had added the dormitory onto the back of the house, with an entry from the backyard. Faith planted her chair outside the door, trying at least to soak in the night, even if she couldn't enjoy it. Thankfully, she was good at fuming and brooding, because that's what she found herself stuck with as she heard the soft slaps of B's punches carrying through the darkness.

At about twelve, Xander peeked his head out the back door of the house. "Buffy?"

"Nope, just me." Faith didn't even turn her head. "Oh yeah, and happy birthday and all that."

"Thanks, Faith. It was nice. Is Buffy around? I wanted to thank her again." Faith jerked her head in the direction of the training room. But before he could start over there, he noticed a figure drop down from one of the dorm windows. The figure noticed Xander and Faith, and sauntered over.

"Hey, you heard what the old guy said...no field trips." Faith tensed as the New York slayer she'd spent so many weeks with did not even look at her, and continued her slow walk towards Xander. The young man glanced nervously over at Faith.

"I don't think we've met." Angie's voice was a lethal purr.

"Um, no, not in the literal sense, I guess." Xander stared at the approaching slayer, while noticing out of the corner of his eye that Faith had positioned herself to intercept the girl.

"Pretty sure I would've remembered. How's about a walk, Xander?" She turned her dark eyes for the first time over to her mentor. "You wouldn't have a problem with that, would you, Faith? I'd be safe with him. Nothing bad would happen to me."

Faith's voice was quiet as her eyes locked with the other girl's and darkened. "Go back inside, Ang. Don't make me do this."

"Do what?" Angie's voice pitched to cloying innocence, then dropped to its normal register. "Like you could do anything anyway." Her gaze fell pointedly to the hidden bandage on Faith's side. "Think you might be getting a little old for this, fearless leader."

Finding Faith now completely blocking her from Xander, Angie shifted her focus, cocking her head a little at the dark slayer. She kept walking until she was well within Faith's personal space, hearing the quick breaths of the other girl and glimpsing the slayer in her eyes. Her voice continued at almost a whisper: "You think you could stop me if I wanted to go? You need to get out of here as much as I do. I can _feel_ it. And you're not going to win any points with your precious golden girl for staying." Faith's jaw clenched, fighting for control. "Yeah, I've seen you...all your talk about the Chosen One with scare quotes, how she's wound too tight, didn't give you a chance, whine-whine...and you're fuckin' dyin' to be a part of it."

Angie stepped even closer, brushing her hand across Faith's stomach the same way Buffy had the first night she'd been here. Angie may not have known about the touch, but she knew about their history, and her slayer was always quick to find a weakness. Faith closed her eyes for a second as she tried to push the memory of that scar, that terrible fight with Buffy, out of her mind and choke back the anger that came along with it. Angie took advantage of the opening. Striking a quick blow to the same wound Buffy had hit earlier, Angie saw the older girl stumble back and went for the gate.

She only made it two steps before, with a roar, Buffy tackled her into the hard brick of the house. The young slayer looked into the older one's eyes, which were alive now that she had something to fight. So Angie fought back, again allowing her slayer to exploit the weakness as she went for Buffy's leg with a jab of her knee. The blonde slayer cried out and tried to hold on to Angie, hearing Faith running to help.

And then, suddenly, she could only hear her own breaths, short and fast.

Confused, Buffy looked to the backdoor and saw Willow's head down, muttering an incantation. Turning back to where Angie had stood only moments before, Buffy found the younger slayer crumpled on the ground, unconscious.

Satisfied that Willow had taken care of the threat, Buffy turned to find Xander, safe but staring wide-eyed at the dark slayer laid out before him on the grass, not moving.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Just wanted to give fair warning that I will be tripping off to ye old county clerk to get my marriage legalized this weekend, and so may not be able to update again until Monday. Thanks again for reading and for your patience!

* * *

"Faith!" Buffy ran to the other girl's side, reaching quickly for a pulse. It was steady, thank god. "Will, what did you—?" She turned back to the house, leaving one hand on Faith's chest to keep track of her breathing. In the backlit doorway, she saw the redheaded witch stagger a little. "Xander! Go help Willow!" Spurred out of his stupor, he ran to her and caught her as she slumped wearily against him, allowing herself to be led back into the house.

Buffy turned back to the prone girl in front of her, and then looked across at the other unconscious girl. She sighed, leaving Faith for a moment to sling Angie over her shoulder and take her back inside the dorm. A roomful of wide-awake slayers watched her silently as she placed Angie on a bed. She looked around at the waiting faces.

"Willow did that. She can do it again. Don't make me have her put a spell around this room to keep you in." With that, she turned and left, not entirely sure Willow could do either of those things, at least without great cost to herself. But they didn't know that.

Back outside, she bent down and picked up Faith, still out from the spell. With the dark slayer cradled in her arms, Buffy went inside to figure out what the hell happened.

* * *

Giles was beginning to wonder if he would ever manage a full night's sleep. This was the disadvantage of living with people, the majority of whom were either young or young with slayer energy, and none of whom respected his own middle-aged need for sleep. He stared at the tea kettle, willing the water to boil.

A few minutes later, he returned to the living room with two steaming mugs. He brought one to Willow, who was recuperating at the end of one couch. She took it gratefully, allowing the heat to bathe her exhausted face.

"Do you need anything else?" Seeing her shake her head, Giles drank a little of his own tea. "Is that a spell you've done before, Willow?"

"Yeah," her voice was a little raspy, "I've done it before in fights, but usually just on vamps to help Buffy or Kennedy out. I've never tried it on two at once." She looked over at the blonde slayer, who was sitting across the room next to where Faith was lying on the couch. Buffy's face told her little of what the slayer was thinking. "I've never tried it on slayers, either."

"I suppose it's true that their life force may be more difficult than most to—how shall we say?—slow down enough to render them unconscious. Particularly Angie's I should think, given her current out-of-control state. That could have been very dangerous for you, Willow."

"From the looks of it, Giles," Dawn spoke up from the chair next to Willow, still in her pajamas, "we had _two_ out-of-control slayers out there." She glared pointedly at the dark slayer whose eyelids were fluttering a little.

"She was _not_ out of control, Dawn. You weren't there." Buffy remonstrated her younger sibling, and looked hard at Xander. He hadn't said anything so far, but she'd be damned if she'd let him pull this shit again.

Xander quietly put in what he saw: "I don't know, Dawn. Faith seemed like she was trying to take care of Angie. Not necessarily attack Buff."

Willow sat up a little, her voice a little clearer. "That's not what I saw." She addressed Buffy. "I saw Angie go after you, and, at the same time, Faith was rushing for your blind side." Seeing the blonde sit up indignantly, she rushed on: "I'm not saying it was her fault, Buffy, but you've got to admit that she was acting a little extra-slayerish earlier in the evening with you. What if she can't control her slayer any more than the others can?"

"As much as I don't want to agree, Buffy, I thought the same when I saw her earlier behavior." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "And, as much as we all don't want to talk about it, there is the matter of Faith's history. She hasn't exactly been the most stable of slayers."

"Hey. Still in the room here." All eyes turned towards the husky voice from the couch. Buffy thought she looked small, especially given the power she'd seen raging in her earlier. Power which she'd watched Faith control. Buffy, on the other hand, wasn't sure that, if pressed, she could've even said exactly what happened out there. Of course, no one was pressing _her_. Buffy turned her attention back to the rest of the room.

"I don't know how to say this any clearer: Faith wasn't attacking me. She was protecting me."

Willow looked out the window for a moment and sighed. When she spoke again, she was careful to hold her old friend's gaze, but her voice was softer. "That doesn't mean she was in control, Buffy."

* * *

Faith awoke to find blonde hair splayed out across her legs. The other Chosen One was curled up at the opposite end of the couch, head resting on Faith's thigh, her breathing slow and deep. Faith watched as the slayer's fingers twitched a little, grabbing at something in her dream. Hearing someone coming down the stairs, Faith reluctantly extricated herself from that can of worms and went into the kitchen for coffee.

The Scoobys gave her a wide berth for the rest of the morning. Which was fine by her, since she wasn't much of a morning person anyway. And not much of a Scooby-type person. Her slayer needed to train, so that's where she went, enjoying the quiet in the large room as she pounded the hell out of the morning.

She was still working at noon, when she heard a knock on the door and saw Buffy open the door, come in, and shut it after her.

"Faith, is there any way you could go help Giles give the shots to the girls?"

"Did he send you? 'Cause I'm thinkin' he's not real hyped to have psycho slayer playin' the heavy on this one."

Buffy sighed. "I told him you would have to do it because I couldn't. He needs a slayer there, though, because I don't know what they'll do when they realize how it makes them feel." She had a faraway look in her eye. "Faith, he used that drug on me without even telling me. He put my mom in danger and made me walk into a death trap and he wasn't going to tell me. I thought I had lost the slayer, and was just going to be stuck helpless like everybody else." She looked back at the other slayer. "I can't do that to them." There was a little steel in her voice.

"B, he thinks I'm crazy."

"Are you?"

"Don't gimme that bullshit." She moved closer to the other girl, lowering her voice a little. "You _know_ you're feeling the same thing. I've seen it in you. We may be better than the newbies in keepin' a handle on it, but it's still getting' worse every day."

The blonde scowled a little and shook her head. "I _saw_ you, Faith. You were wound up, yeah, but you pulled it together."

"Is that so incredibly hard to believe? That I might have just a little more experience tryin' to hold things in, what with my homicidal past and all? Does it just burn you, B, that I might be better at it than you, who's never had to work to keep a lid on anything?"

"That's not what I meant, Faith. I just meant...you were able to rein it in."

Faith paused a moment. "And you think you weren't?" The other girl said nothing, tense as though she would bolt right out of there. Faith could have reached out and touched her. She stayed close enough to, but kept her hands at her sides. "Well, maybe you weren't. Maybe the great Buffy Summers went all eye-of-the-tiger. Imagine that."

The little part of Faith that always came out around the other slayer was starting to enjoy the effect she was having on the blonde, only inches away now. Buffy's breathing had shallowed and her eyes were unfocused somewhere in the general direction of the dark slayer's lips. Faith saw her fingers twitch for the second time that day. Because she was good at playing the bitch, Faith circled an arm around the blonde slayer's waist and pulled her in, watching her counterpart struggle with what her body wanted.

"Please, Faith!" Buffy gasped, unable to move back. "I won't—"

_Yeah, that's what I figured._ The dark slayer let go and swept around the other girl on her way to the door, cutting her off. "I know you won't, B. You won't because you're the Chosen One, and what would your friends think, and you're strictly het—it must be that Baaad Faith. Meanwhile, I got about the worst fuckin' timing in the world to come here to get yo-yoed while you're in the middle of your slayer hot flashes." She let out a long breath. "Christ, B, we're both gonna lose it if you keep going like this! You've gotta suck it up and tell them what's wrong with us."

The blonde hadn't turned to face her, but was still quivering where she had been left. She spoke so softly Faith almost had to lean in to hear it. "I meant that I won't be able to stop."

Faith's face stayed expressionless for a moment before she spoke: "You tell them or I will, B." With that, she pushed out the door to help Giles.

* * *

Taking Faith's place in the training room, Buffy did everything she could to wear her slayer out. Every training routine, every kata, every weapons drill she could think of. She did all those things she knew the young slayers in the house were not going to be able to do.

And still she was on edge, instantly-alert when she felt two more slayers come onto her radar screen.

Which reminded her of another mess she'd rather not deal with.

A mess that was standing in the doorway when she looked over from her place at the punching bag.

"Buffy?"


	11. Chapter 11

"Kennedy." Buffy kept the punching bag between her and the brunette slayer. "Have you seen Willow?"

"Locked lips with one redheaded girlfriend—check. Introduced everyone to the new slayer on the block, and promptly saw her trotted off to be powered down." She paused next to the weight bench, fingering the metal grips. "I tell you, Buffy, you go away for a few days, and pretty soon everyone's neutering slayers." She trailed her finger along the blade of one of the shelved swords. "Not Faith, though. Not you." Kennedy raised her eyes to meet Buffy's. "And not me."

Buffy couldn't make out Kennedy's tone—the brunette wasn't giving her much. But Buffy knew that she'd been interrupted in the middle of a workout and that her slayer was still charged from the earlier close encounter with Faith's kind.

"Now's not really a good time for me, Kennedy. I know I messed up and I'm really sorry...it will absolutely _not_ happen again. But maybe we could talk about this later?" Buffy turned back towards the bag, keeping an eye on the other slayer.

"Wow, Buffy. Change the subject much?" The brunette moved in between Buffy and the door, closer to the blonde until she had a hand on the other side of the bag, steadying it like a good workout partner. "Who was talking about that?"

Buffy kicked her slayer a little for being too overeager. "Look, we both know it's out there, and you don't want to hurt Willow and I certainly don't want to hurt Willow, and I don't really feel like that about you—nothing personal—so everything's alright." Buffy fought to keep her voice even, feeling the forces in her rumbling at the other slayer's attempt to corner her. "And I really need to finish my workout, so I'll just catch up with you, ok?."

The brunette wasn't moving. "Yeah, Buffy, I meant to thank you for that. Good of you to be looking out for my girlfriend, especially given the last time I saw you when you didn't seem quite so—how should I put it?—conscious of her."

_Deep breaths_. "Ok Kennedy, if you're not going to leave, I will." Buffy picked up her towel and started to brush past Kennedy on her way to the door. The other slayer let her past, but then whirled to grab the blonde around the neck with her arm, holding the other slayer flush against her body. Buffy growled, both hands coming up to pull on the arm pinning her, back arching away from the brunette slayer as she struggled against Kennedy's better leverage.

Kennedy purred into her ear. "Ah...there she is." Feeling the Chosen One writhe to get free, she pulled Buffy a little tighter against her for emphasis. Her free hand on the blonde slayer's abdomen, Kennedy felt the slayer's muscles tighten, a constant warning vibrating from her throat. "Aren't you going to try to fuck me again, Buffy? Isn't that what you want? I don't think you give a rat's ass about Willow, or any of the rest of them. I think you just want everything your way—that's the way you've always wanted it."

Buffy squeezed her eyes shut, seeing only red as the brunette's words hissed in her ear. _Please Willow don't come in here, please Willow don't come in here, please Willow don't come in here..._

But then abruptly she was let go. Buffy stumbled forward from the rough embrace, gasping for air. Behind her, she heard Kennedy chuckling. She didn't look back—she just left.

From the kitchen window, Faith saw Buffy slide out the door, shut it behind her, and lean against it for a moment, her eyes closed. She watched her come all the way into the kitchen, not looking at Faith. When the blonde slayer spoke, her voice was tight.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be doing yoga in my cold shower." She paused in the doorway, placing a hand on the doorjamb as she half-turned back. "And, Faith? I didn't."

"Suit yourself, B."

* * *

"The first thing to understand, is that there must always be balance." There was a squeak of markers behind Giles as Dawn wrote "Balance" in bright blue letters on the flip chart. Everyone was in the training room this time, the best spot to address the assembled crowd of slayers and Scoobys. Giles and Dawn had center stage.

"There was always one slayer, one Chosen One to fight all the demons."

"That's some pretty suck-tastic balance, Giles." Kennedy called out from her spot next to Willow, who was still keeping a close eye on her girlfriend. The brunette absently gave the redhead's leg a little squeeze as she raised an eyebrow at the watcher.

The Englishman's forehead furrowed for a moment as he looked down at his notes again. "Ahem, well, it was balance because that's the way the Powers that Be said it would be balanced." Then he added as an afterthought: "And of course, slayers are very good at their job, which keeps the demons at bay."

"Unless the slayer doesn't happen to be on the Hellmouth." "Or unless the slayer happens to die, which, from what Dawn says, happens a lot." Several voices piped up at once from the sullen younger slayers spread out throughout the room. Some had tried the weights while they were waiting for Giles to begin and were horrified to find how much harder things were. One girl had even broken a finger trying to land a punch which, up until this morning, would have been a matter of course for her. The crowd was not going to be an easy one. In the corner of the room by the door, Buffy leaned against the wall, her arms crossed in front of her, looking out the windows near the ceiling.

"Well, I think we're getting a bit off track here." Giles looked over his glasses at the group and continued on. "What is important is that, currently, the situation is out of balance. And, unfortunately, we are to blame." The markers squeaked again as Dawn wrote "We did it" on the board. "Dawn, I really don't think that was..." Willow's face sunk a little and she snuck a glance over at Buffy, who was still staring into the evening sky. She had to make this better this time, without messing everything up. Resolved, she turned back to Giles.

"So when we activated all of the potentials and made them slayers, we threw things off, and that's what's causing all this...um, craziness?"

"Precisely, Willow." Dawn stepped up from behind him.

"Right, so, think of how we like created a whole lot of Good, which was needed for the battle with the First, but, after that, it was just too much Good. So the world knows it needs to get back even again, and it says 'how can I do that?' and looks to the thing causing the problem: the slayers." She glanced over at Giles and saw him nodding at her. "And it gets a little help from the Hellmouth, which is always good for making everything all Hellmouthy." The circularity of the definitions brought Giles back in to clarify.

"I think what Dawn is trying to say is that the Hellmouth is trying to reassert the balance by disabling the slayers using their own strengths and by sending additional demons—the large groups of vampires that have been seen—to try to even the odds."

Xander raised his hand and Giles reluctantly called on him. "So, how do we make the slayers less liable to go all self-destruct?" Giles looked back at his notes for a moment, then up towards where Buffy was standing in the corner.

"Well, that's the part we haven't yet uncovered, Xander." He turned and smiled sadly at the audience of hard faces. "I'm afraid we're going to have to concentrate on keeping the damage to a minimum until then. We don't even know yet why some slayers are affected and others are not. Kennedy, I am to understand that you are still feeling nothing out of the ordinary?"

From the opposite side of the room, Faith saw Buffy studying the brunette, who assured Giles she felt "right as ever." Willow watched Kennedy, too, and Faith wondered how much she suspected.

"Right then. Well, as I said, we have discovered that the balance is the key here and will now be working to discover how to right that balance." He looked hopefully at the younger slayers. "Anyone willing to help with the research would be greatly appreciated." Silence, then one or two reluctantly raised their hands. Dawn quickly jotted down their names on the flip chart and then dismissed the younger slayers for dinner as Xander trotted off to order about a million pizzas.

After they had left, Giles looked from one side of the room to the other, from dark to light slayer and at Kennedy with Willow in the middle of the room. His eyes went back to Buffy, still standing, arms crossed near the door.

"Buffy, do you feel able to patrol this evening? I notice you were training for a good while this afternoon, so I assume you must be feeling better."

For the first time, the blonde seemed to acknowledge that Giles was in the room. "Yeah, fine. You know me, always ready to go!" She straightened up, picked up a stake from the basket near the door, and slid it into her boot.

"And will you be taking Faith and Kennedy with you?" Giles' voice was carefully free of any suggestion as to what she should do, knowing very well that she was not inclined to listen to his advice. He watched her face carefully. Buffy stopped for a moment, then tried to shrug casually.

"Um, sure, why not? Probably better to have more than one in case there are any of those big vamp group thingies."

"I think Buffy and Faith should take care of things tonight." All eyes turned towards Willow, including the not-so-happy ones of her girlfriend.

"Willow, I can totally—" Willow placed a finger over Kennedy's lips.

"I know, baby, but I wanted to ask you more questions about the new girl and what slaying was like in Chile." She paused, her eyes trying to mask their concern. "It could be important to helping us understand what's going on here." Kennedy would have clearly liked to have come off of that seat, but had a hard time resisting those eyes, and stayed put, albeit grudgingly.

"It's settled, then. Buffy and Faith will patrol." Giles nodded to Buffy. "Be careful."

It was Faith that responded with a jaunty "No sweat, G-man." The dark slayer fairly skipped over to the blonde and, in a moment, they were out the door.

* * *

"So, you really think we should be out here, B?" The two slayers made their way down the dimly-lit street, walking quickly towards one of Cleveland's hotspots.

"Might not be my best idea ever." The blonde turned her eyes on Faith. "But I didn't see you volunteering to stay and play video games with Xander."

"Ya got a point there." At her words, Buffy looked over and gave Faith a slow smile. Reaching out, she caught Faith's arm just as they were about to enter the first cemetery, spinning the brunette slayer around to face her. Tensing at the sudden move, Faith locked in on the blonde's eyes gleaming back at her in the dark. Buffy kept one hand on Faith's arm and with the other grabbed the front of Faith's shirt, holding her close.

Buffy's voice was low as she flicked her eyes down to Faith's lips and back up to meet Faith's gaze. "Then let's have some fun!" And she was off and running.

If Buffy wasn't sure as to whether this was a good idea or not, Faith had no doubt in her mind. Giving a little shiver, she took off into the night after the blonde slayer.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Thanks again to all who are reading and thanks to all reviewers for your kind words--you really keep me going!

* * *

By the time Faith caught up to the blonde slayer, Buffy was already facing off against a trio of the newly-raised. And she had clearly found her fun. The vampires, seeing the small blonde before them, thought they had found theirs as well.

"Look, guys! Someone brought dinner." The speaker had, Faith guessed, probably the dimmest wattage of the group, but he nonetheless got chuckles from his friends as they put on game faces.

"You know," Buffy kept her hand on her hip, striking the classic pose of the valley girl who could hardly be bothered. "I've always wondered why you guys come straight out of the ground with the lame lines. I mean, 'someone brought dinner'? Maybe you should just stick with the classic 'I vant to suck your blood.' I met Dracula and he's way over-hyped, but at least _he_ didn't sound like a pizza delivery commercial."

The vamps were predictably not happy with sassy food, and decided to abandon the talking for a good old fashioned bull rush. The only flaw in their plan, of course, was that Buffy was ready for them. Faith enjoyed the ballet of the blonde's sidestep, with a little slapstick comedy for good measure as Buffy stuck a foot out to send one flying.

Right into Faith's waiting arms. He was dust before he even knew there was another slayer there.

"Oh! Did you finally catch up?" Buffy flashed her a grin as she blocked one vampire's wild punch.

"Yeah, ya forgot to mention you were gonna go all run-Forrest-run on me, B." Faith moved in to grab the other vamp by the arm just as he was moving to help his friend. "Excuse me, but may I have this dance?" Startled, the guy tried to shake loose of the dark slayer's grip, reaching out with his other hand to clamp on to her throat. Faith spun out of the hold, and loosed a side kick that sent him flying right into the side of Buffy's vamp. "My bad, B! His moves sucked." Faith paused for a moment, then smiled broadly. "Hey! Sucked!"

"Oh great! I get stuck with the witty slayer for the evening!" Buffy gave an exaggerated eye roll and nonchalantly stuck out her stake, which the vampire who was trying to sneak up on her promptly ran heart-first into.

"Always happy to oblige a pretty girl." The two slayers turned in unison to face the last remaining, now clearly in-over-his-head vampire. He wasn't so dumb that he didn't realize it, and promptly lit off through the cemetery.

Buffy turned back to Faith. "Ok with you if we do that running thing now?"

"Way ahead a ya, B." The dark slayer taunted, slapping Buffy on the ass as she took off in the direction of her prey.

* * *

The two slayers were beautiful in action, light and dark streaks through the cemetery, vaulting gravestones, catching up to the fleeing vamp. Ahead, they heard him skitter down the stairs into a large mausoleum in the center of the graveyard, and, within moments, were flying down the stairs after him. Only to slide to a halt in the middle of a large, open room.

Around them, twenty vampires looked up at the sudden intrusion into their lair.

"I knew I must've taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque," Faith muttered, scanning the room for other exits besides the now-closed route by which they'd come.

"Well, Faith," Buffy looked over at the other Chosen One, breathing hard from the fight or the run or the excitement or all of it, "I agree it's not fair. What do you say we try fighting with one hand tied behind our backs to even up the odds?"

"Tying up, B?" She turned around to put her back against the other slayer's, forming a dual front of fists and stakes. "It's kinky, but I like it."

And then there was no more time for talking.

The slayers parried with breathtaking speed as wave after wave of vampires ran at them. Back to back, Buffy could hear the soft grunts of her counterpart with every punch that made it through her defenses, and the two punches she landed in return. Buffy took a hit to her jaw and sprang back with a jab to the heart so strong she went through one vamp, and then, in a cloud of that dust, took out the one behind him. Hearing the dark slayer call her name, Buffy turned to catch Faith and swing her around, propelling her straight into a group of four, who were literally bowled over by her unexpected kamikaze turn. In a blur of fist and stake, Faith whittled them down to two. One was lucky enough to knock her off balance with a blow to that sweet spot in her side, but, just as the other was about to capitalize, a streak of blonde flew by, tossing the offending vampire like a rag doll against the marble wall.

Spotting some chairs in the corner, obviously brought in by the vampires. Faith ran for them, threading the growling vamps. On reaching them, she grabbed one chair and swung it around to catch her closest follower right in his head. Man, she had always wanted to do that! She smiled at the crumpled vampire and wonderful array of stakes the chair had sacrificed its life for. Just didn't get better!

"B! Up high!" Faith's throw was a little tall for the blonde, but Buffy leapt and grabbed the flying splinter, turning to face her attackers once again, this time with a stake in each hand.

"Geez, Faith! Not Amazon slayer over here!" Buffy yelled back through the dust of another slay.

"Oops! Sorry 'bout that! Forgot you were the runt of the litter!" She grinned evilly at the blonde, who stuck her tongue out in eloquent reply. Turning, Faith threw two of her stakes, and took down two vamps running in her direction. There were just a handful left. Which meant Faith could show off a little, executing a flip off one crypt right into the solar plexus of a waiting vamp. As she rolled past him, a quick jab closed the deal. The last vampire, opting for the all-or-nothing approach, took his chance to leap on top of her, grabbing her head and knocking it back against the cool stone floor. Stunned for a moment, she heard the growl of Buffy's attack as the blonde slayer came to her rescue for the second time since she'd arrived in Cleveland. The tangled pair of slayer and vamp went sliding off across the floor, and Faith shook off the fuzziness to scramble after them. It took only a second before he was dust, and all that was left was two slayers, breathing hard.

Faith turned her head to look over at the blonde slayer, but suddenly found herself pinned to the floor, the weight of that very same slayer now on top of her. Buffy's hair came down like a curtain around them, revealing deep green eyes looking directly into the darkness of her own, and then down to her lips. Feeling the blonde settling more of her weight onto her, Faith closed her eyes and groaned into the goodness of that weight, the slayer's hips sliding against her own, chest pressing into her own as Buffy bent in and found Faith's lips. And then the dark slayer could feel only that kiss and—unbelievably, inevitably—the response of her own.

As Faith's body met hers, Buffy let out a little growl of pleasure, taking Faith's bottom lip for a moment between her teeth, before letting it go to trail a series of kisses down the neck that the brunette obligingly offered up to her. The blonde slayer traced her tongue along Faith's collarbone, eliciting a soft cry from the girl under her. The dark slayer's hand reached up to grab the back of the blonde's neck, and she hooked her legs around to keep the other girl in place.

Buffy had no intention of going anywhere.

Feeling the rumble in the brunette's chest that answered her own, she pushed up Faith's shirt, raking her nails across the other girl's stomach, leaving lines of red against the flushing skin. Groaning as she unhooked the bra and saw the white skin beneath, she felt the other slayer's hands fluttering across her body, then ripping through the buttons of her shirt. Faith sat up, her hands against the blonde's arching back, holding her. Buffy bit her lip at the feeling of the hot mouth along the top of her breasts, nipping at the skin in little electric shots of pleasure and pain.

With a hand on Faith's shoulder, Buffy pushed the other girl back down against the floor, capturing her mouth again with a hungry kiss. Moaning, Faith tangled her fingers in the blonde mane as Buffy left her mouth and took one of Faith's nipples lightly between her teeth. Behind her eyelids, Faith could only see bright lights and bursts of colors as the blonde's mouth and hands moved across her body. She felt as though her whole life was narrowing to the groans of need, the brilliant lights, and every inch of receptive skin where Buffy's body touched hers.

When the blonde slayer slid her hand down inside the waistband of Faith's jeans, the dark slayer forgot to breathe.

Her world narrowing even further, to the barest pinprick of electric current, she reached blindly for Buffy's body and, catching bare skin, pulled her close, fumbling with the button and zipper, feeling how much Buffy needed her and hearing her cry when Faith touched her, sending them both over the edge.

And then, for one long moment, it was as if Faith had dreamt it all. There had been no Buffy kissing her, no Buffy—without history or apology or words—touching her. For that moment, the air above her was empty.

Until the moment ended and the world rushed back in as she heard the other slayer cry "Faith! Watch ou—!" and heard the thump of a body hitting the wall. Shocked, she looked over, and saw Buffy sliding down the side of the crypt, struggling to get back up and face the four vampires they hadn't seen come in.

Instantly, Faith sprang up, the energies running through her body abruptly switching currents and flowing, no less powerfully, into the force behind her stake as she sent one vamp flying into dust. Another grabbed her from behind, lifting her off the ground, choking her. She could see two vampires working on the still-stunned Buffy about ten feet away. Steel hands on her throat, Faith saw them swing Buffy around into the wall head-first and tried to scream, lunging towards the blonde slayer as she staggered and fell. Faith's slayer took ahold of the hands on her throat and pried them apart. She bent a little to throw the vamp behind her off balance, and then flung him over her shoulder, across the room, and into the one of the vamps approaching the blonde as she fought to get up. Before either of the vampires could rise, Faith was on them, bringing the stakes in each hand down at once to dust them. Lowering her shoulder, she plowed into the last one bending over Buffy, slamming him back into the wall, pinning him there as she fished out another stake and finished him off.

Breathing heavily, she turned to see the blonde pulling herself up, her hand against the wall for support, forehead bleeding down into her eyes.

"B!" Faith's voice was choked.

"I'm ok." Her voice was shakey. She smeared a little of the blood aside, wincing, and looked across at Faith, who was watching as Buffy's eyes took in the dark slayer's disheveled clothes and squeezed shut in pain. "I'm so sorry, Faith! I didn't want..."

Faith's face had fallen at the apology, and before Buffy could finish her sentence, she was gone. Alone in the crypt with the sound of Faith's receding steps, Buffy told the rest of it to the dead.

"...the first time to be like this."

* * *

The hour was late when a knock brought a still-awake Kennedy rushing out of bed to answer it. Opening the door, she found a battered Buffy holding herself upright against the doorjamb. Kennedy's eyes widened, then, as she heard Willow call out to her from inside, narrowed again to size up the blonde for any threat.

Buffy pushed past, nearly collapsing on the ground next to Willow's side of the bed. The redhead, seeing the bloody face and ripped clothes of her friend, sat up, instantly awake.

"Buffy, what in the world—?"

"Will, something's wrong with me." The blonde closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again to meet Willow's. "And I need to find Faith."


	13. Chapter 13

"Wait a minute...back up. What?" Willow's brows furrowed as she tried to follow the blonde, who had leapt up again and was pacing between the wall and the bed. Before she could get her answer, Xander popped his head around the door.

"Hey, did I hear the voice of our favoritist Chosen On—" He saw Buffy, who had tensed into a fighting stance at the sudden interruption. "Whoah, down girl! Jesus...are you alright?" Buffy relaxed slightly and resumed pacing.

"Buffy, what happened? You've got to tell me...I can't guess." Willow stood up and slowly tried to approach the reeling blonde. As she did so, Kennedy moved over next to her.

Buffy's eyes were wide and wild as she looked from Willow to Xander to the window and back again. "I didn't mean for it to happen! I should have been paying attention, but we had just dealt with so many, I didn't think about there being more! I should have looked!" The words came out quickly, and Willow reached out a hand to catch the other girl's arm, but Buffy had already turned away again towards the window. "We have to find her, Will!" Willow glanced over at Xander, motioning him to get the first-aid kit from her bathroom. The redhead started to move towards her friend, only to feel Kennedy's hand on her arm, holding her back while brushing past her to approach the blonde slayer herself. As Buffy stared out into the night, Kennedy lunged forward to grab her. Startled, Buffy yelped, jerking free then staggering as she felt the world swim and grabbed her head.

Willow shot Kennedy a _you're not helping_ look and turned back to the wary blonde as her girlfriend sulked. "Buffy, what's wrong?" Willow kept her voice even and her eyes on the slayer. But it was Kennedy who answered.

"I'll bet she slept with Faith."

"Ken!" Willow glared at her girlfriend as Xander's head appeared at the bathroom door.

"She did what? Buff, you slept with Faith? The same Faith that tried to kill you?"

"I knew it!" Kennedy crowed at Buffy's pained expression. "Would've thought you would think that was slumming, Buffy." With a roar, the blonde rushed at her. Kennedy easily managed the wild attack, catching the blonde roughly around the waist and spinning her around for Willow.

"Baby, don't hurt her!"

Xander plod on, "The same Faith that killed a man, and, might I add, tried to kill me?"

"Ok, can it, Xander!" Willow sighed, turning to the squirming slayer. "Buffy, that's not the problem, is it?" At her words, the blonde head jerked up, eyes meeting Willow's and holding them there, pleading for understanding even as she was ready to run from the lack of it.

Her voice tripped over itself. "We were fighting and there were so many of them, but we thought we could do it and we were winning—we did win—and then there was Faith and I'd never wanted someone so badly, I _needed_ her and we—" She gasped for breath. "—we were together and all I could see and think of was her and I didn't think of anything else and, Christ!, we were in a mausoleum where vamps hang out in the cemetery in the middle of the night and how could I be so stupid! I didn't see the vamps that had come in, when they threw me aside, and I kept trying to get back to her, but I couldn't—"

"Buffy, is Faith okay?"

"Yeah, I think so...no thanks to me." She winced. "But afterwards I think she thought I hadn't wanted—" She paused, grabbed for the redhead's hand only to have Kennedy haul her back a step. "Willow, she ran, and I don't know where she is. We've got to find her." The redhead nodded and turned to Kennedy.

"Can you go? We need to stay here and get Buffy—" Kennedy had freed the blonde, grabbed her jacket, and was out the door before Willow even finished the sentence. The redhead looked at the door she'd just slammed. From the driveway below, the three Scoobys could hear her motorcycle revving up. Now loose, Buffy stumbled as she rushed for the window.

"So, we know that Buffy's slayer is all wild kingdom like the rest of them and made her do the horizontal mambo with Faith..." Buffy wheeled on him, eyes a little unfocused.

"It wasn't like that!"

Willow shhed her with an "I know" and turned again to her old friend, trying to get him off his theme. "Xander, I need your help here." The two of them looked at the blonde moving restlessly in front of the window. It was like trying to bandage a wild animal. They were going to need some tranquilizer. Motioning Xander to follow her, Willow walked slowly towards the blonde slayer, her voice calibrated to soothe that slayer.

"It's okay, Buffy. Just let me help you rest a little...you're still bleeding." The blonde stood for a moment, then shook her head and started towards the door, weaving a little. Xander caught her arm, almost bracing for a punch that he knew would hurt like hell.

"I don't want to hurt you, Xan, but I need to go to her!" Buffy's voice was husky as she looked down at his hand on her arm, clenching her jaw.

"We'll find Faith, I promise." Willow carefully approached the slayer, incanting under her breath. The blonde turned big eyes towards her, and Willow laid her hand on the feverish forehead, straining against the will of the slayer within until she felt the other girl give in a little and crumple into Xander's waiting arms, asleep.

* * *

"So she tried to fuck you, too, huh? Gotta say, girl gets around."

"What're you, the fuckin' cavalry?" Faith growled. The younger slayer found her stalking through a cemetery, looking for something to kill. And decidedly not looking to talk, especially when she suspected it had to do with a certain blonde they both knew. "Well, I don't need it, so just run back and tell that to B."

"Yeah, wasn't the Chosen One that sent me, Faith." Faith looked over sharply. "Sorry to disappoint, but she was too busy whinin' about how she was out of control to be asking about you."

Faith kicked the gravestone in front of her. Why was it that, whenever you really wanted a vamp, they were never around?

"Hey, that's someone's mother! Don't take it out on them just 'cause the only reason Buffy would ever touch you is that her slayer's calling the shots." Faith growled a warning at the other girl, who had moved closer to the dark slayer, though still carefully out of arm's reach. "Yeah, she came after me, too, remember? Tried to ruin my relationship with Willow just to get her rocks off, remember? I know how she is."

"Yeah, and meanwhile you were on planet Ice Queen." Faith sneered at the other girl. "Don't tell me you weren't horndoggin' it right there with her 'cause I heard it out of your own mouth, remember? Somebody woke me up at fuckin' 3 in the morning all 'I wanted Buffy, I was gonna have Buffy six ways to Sunday, blah blah'." Faith ended in a falsetto, enjoying the other girl's rising anger. When you couldn't find vamps, Faith guessed you just had to make due with needling volatile slayers.

"That's not how it was! She totally came on to me!" Seeing the other girl's expression, Kennedy pressed forward on a hunch. "That's the way it happened to you, too, didn't it? One minute you're slaying and the next there she is." Her voice lowered a little as she pushed the point home. "Was it hot, Faith? Did you kiss her like she was Buffy? Did you make love to her like she was Buffy?" She sniffed. "Don't tell me you fooled yourself that it was real."

"Yeah, whatever." Faith's voice was tight as she scratched her stake through the dirt crusting the gravestone she sat on, snapping the wood in two with the force she didn't realize she was using. She knew Kennedy was baiting her but couldn't help distrusting the images running through her mind: Buffy's eyes looking at her, dark and intense; Buffy's nails across her skin; Buffy's mouth, her kiss.

"Is she, ya know, okay?" Faith tried—and failed—at nonchalant.

"Yeah, if you call a big bleeding head wound alright." Kennedy raised an eyebrow at the other girl. "Think your foreplay might have been a little rough for her, Faith. Gotta remember she's not used to the likes of you." Faith jumped off the grave and started walking towards Kennedy's bike parked just outside the cemetery railing. "Hey, where're you—?"

"Take me back to the house."

"Hey, you don't want to go there! Let's find something to slay, kick some ass, have some fun..."

Faith shut her eyes as the brunette unknowingly echoed Buffy's phrase from earlier. Before all this. Count to ten. "No, now." Kennedy stayed where she was. "You're going, too. Red'd fuckin' kill me if I left you out here, so get on." Kennedy wavered, then her phone rang. Angrily she snapped it open. She closed her eyes as she heard Willow's voice on the line.

"Yeah, I got her." A pause. "Yeah, we'll be there in a bit."

* * *

Willow was relieved to see Kennedy at the door and the slayer found herself caught up in a tight hug she hadn't quite expected. But didn't exactly mind. Leaning down, she found Willow's mouth. The redhead whimpered a little at the implied need in that kiss, but, breathing deeply, pulled herself away to address the dark slayer shifting from one foot to the other in the hallway.

"Whew! Hold that thought, Ken." Another breath. She looked over at Faith, motioning her into the bedroom. The girl jammed her hands in her pockets and sauntered in, dropping the act abruptly when she saw the blonde slayer laid out across the bed, turning fitfullly in her sleep.

"Is she—?"

Willow watched the dark slayer move impulsively towards the sleeping girl. "I think she's okay, Faith. It was a nasty head wound and she may have some bruised ribs, too, but Xander and I bandaged her up as best we could." Faith raised an eyebrow, still looking at Buffy. "Yeah, and I had to knock her out to do it. I have to say that she's not the best patient on a good day, and especially not when she's all slayer-infused." Faith glanced over at her, and Willow met her eyes. "She wouldn't stop trying to leave to find you. It was the only way."

Faith shifted her gaze over to Kennedy, who was staring out the window, then back to Buffy.

"Faith, I hate to have to ask, but, are you okay?" Faith kept her eyes on Buffy. "'Cause Buffy said she was feeling out of control and she looked pretty out of control what with the pacing and stuff, so I was wondering if you were feeling it, too." Still not looking at her, Faith nodded. Willow let out a long breath. "Okay, which means you're probably affected, too, Ken." She turned to look at her girlfriend, who was wheeling around to deny it. "It's okay, Baby." She smiled sadly. "I'm not saying that kiss wasn't hot, but maybe not the most appropriate timing, so I'm thinking you're feeling the slayer, too." She looked back to Buffy, who was whimpering a little in her sleep. "The problem is, I can't put you all to sleep like her—I couldn't even really put her in a deep sleep—the slayer's just putting out too much energy. But we don't want anyone doing anything stupid, so I'm open to ideas."

"I won't leave her."

Willow looked at the dark slayer thoughtfully. "No, I guess you won't. Why don't you two go across into Buffy's room and I could get Xander to bring in a cot...unless you want to sleep in the bed with her, which is fine by me, whatever you want to do, in which case he doesn't need to bring in a cot—"

Faith stopped her: "I'll figure something else out." She glanced over at Kennedy. "You two gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. I think I can manage to keep her occupied."

Faith couldn't resist giving the redhead a grin as she saw Kennedy's eyes focused intently now on Willow: "I'm sure you will, Red." Then she took a deep breath and turned back to Buffy, gently lifting the girl in her arms and carrying her across the hall to bed.


	14. Chapter 14

When someone knocked softly late the next morning, Faith opened one eyelid at the intrusion. Seeing Willow poking her head around the bedroom door, Faith sat up on the window seat where she'd been sprawled, cracking her neck. The redhead stood just inside the door, one finger over her lips as she pointed to the ground in front of the seat. Faith craned over the edge to see the blonde slayer on the floor beneath Faith's impromptu bed, curled up in covers she'd stripped off her own bed.

_Everything okay?_ Faith felt the witch's voice in her head.

_Yeah. That wasn't where I left her, by the way. And to think I went to all that trouble to tuck her in nice and everything. _Willow smiled at Faith's words.

_I figured as much._ A pause. _Faith?_ The brunette raised her eyes from Buffy's sleeping form to meet Willow's. _I'm trusting you._ Faith understood it was both a statement and a question.

_Red, I don't know what she—I mean, you saw her last ni—_

_I know that. But whatever it is, I'm trusting you not to mess it up. _Looking back down as the blonde murmured a little in her sleep and turned over, Faith sighed and nodded.

Willow backed quietly out the door and went downstairs to find Giles. The Englishman was already ensconced in his books in the study with Dawn when Willow came in. Both heads raised, inquiringly.

"Did Xander fill you in before he left for work?" Willow asked Giles, pulling a chair over in front of the computer.

"In a manner of speaking. He said Buffy had been hurt and something about Buffy and Faith..." Giles trailed off.

"What!? You didn't tell me she was hurt! Oh my god, is she okay?" Dawn was half out of her chair, clearly miffed at being the last to know.

Willow reached a hand out and caught the slayer's sister before she went charging upstairs. "Whoa, Dawnie, she's alright. She got hit in the head and a few bruised ribs in the fight last night, but Xander and I bandaged her up. Let her sleep and heal." Dawn cast one more look upstairs before sitting back down in a sulk. Willow went on: "Giles, they're all affected, Buffy, Faith, even Kennedy. They were all a little out of control last night." The watcher took off his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Are you sure, Willow?"

"Sorry, Giles, but yeah. It's kind of like watching someone with really bad impulse control. And everything's like grrr fight, grrr slay, and, um, sort of grrr sex, you know? I had to put Buffy to sleep just so I could get her to stand still long enough to clean her wound."

"I'm sure that went over well." Dawn had been listening intently.

"Not really," Willow nodded. "She was a little bit, um...keyed up about Faith."

The watcher let out a long breath. "And how is Faith?"

"Yeah, she's like the Queen of Poor Impulse Control—she must be going nuts." Dawn chimed in, still upset at being scolded for calling it like it was the other night after the thing with Angie.

"Actually, she seems to be doing better with things than Buffy. Relatively speaking, I mean. She's not super clear-headed and I'm not going to give her a job with the United Nations or anything, but something tells me that Faith's learned a little bit about self-control since all that stuff with the Mayor. I guess that's helping her now."

"Where is she?" Giles had asked the question, but Willow watched Dawn as she answered.

"She's in Buffy's bedroom...they're sleeping."

"She's where?" Dawn squeaked. "Yeah, that's a great idea, Willow! Let's put the two of them together and see how many dead or maimed slayers we end up with!"

"Dawn, sit down." Dawn did as told, even though she clearly wanted to march right up those stairs that very minute and give one dark-haired slayer a piece of her mind. "I said Faith was more in control." Willow's eyes shifted over to meet Giles. "And I don't think Faith will hurt her, no matter how much her slayer's running things." Giles raised an eyebrow for her to continue. "I think they, um...ok, Ithinktheyhadsexlastnight." The last part came out in a rush, and Giles' eyebrow climbed up in the vicinity of the north pole. That reaction was, of course, dwarfed by Dawn's.

"She did what!?"

* * *

Dawn's voice downstairs was loud enough to wake the dead. And certainly one blonde slayer. Buffy groaned as her sister's exclamation cut in through a headache the size of Alaska. Grabbing for her pillow to put her head firmly under it, her hand kept reaching and reaching and just finding a whole lot of sheets and comforter, but no pillow.

"Ain't there, B." The blonde's eyes flew open at the unexpected, husky voice in her bedroom. But as she opened them, all she could see was floor and the dust underneath her bed. Well, that certainly was different.

"Wha—?"

"Up here." Buffy whirled to face the sound, only to wince a little at her healing ribs. "Yeah, floor's not so great for sleepin', but, for the record, I'm not the one that put ya there." Her counterpart sat regarding her from the corner of the window seat. Buffy's eyes traveled down to the brunette's t-shirt and boxers, then looked down at her own clothes, the same she'd been wearing last night.

"Don't worry, B. I didn't touch."

"Faith, that's not..." She trailed off as the dark slayer hopped from her perch and disappeared into the bathroom. She heard the sound of water and a toothbrush. Buffy closed her eyes and sighed as images from the previous night came unbidden but not unwelcome into her mind. She still had her eyes closed when Faith emerged from the bathroom, fully-clothed.

"B?" The blonde shook her head and looked up to the see the same dark eyes. Those eyes looked back into hers, and didn't miss the desire there.

"Faith, can we talk?" The blonde slayer's voice was a little hoarse, and Faith found herself fighting to keep her gaze from sliding down to the shirt she'd ripped open last night, to the glimpse of Buffy's bra, that curve—

"I think you need to get your slayer a cold shower, B. I'll meet you downstairs." The dark slayer stood by the door until the other girl had padded off to the shower. Taking a deep breath, she leaned back, knocking her head softly against the door.

* * *

Downstairs was just a barrel of fun for Faith. As soon as she'd cleared the last step, she saw the slayer's sister come flying across the room to stand about an inch away, her finger in Faith's face. The dark slayer leaned back, bracing herself on the banister rail as the young girl told her she was crazy and a bad influence and not welcome and most other things Faith could imagine before Willow clamped a hand across Dawn's mouth and, with a mouthed "sorry!", dragged the girl back across the room to the books spread out there.

Faith counted to ten and then let go of the banister rail. Giles, just coming down the hall, raised an eyebrow at the crack she left in the wood.

"Good morning. And how are you feeling, Faith?"

"'Bout 2 x 4, if ya wanna know the truth of it, but I'm goin' for coffee." She tried for a reassuring smile and then walked past him to the kitchen. She stayed out on the deck for a while, figuring that no one needed her help with the research anyway, and then she moved into the sunlit backyard, practicing a few of the longer katas she knew to expend a little of the energy building in her. A times she felt a prickle in the back of her neck and turned to see familiar green eyes watching her through the slider. Faith stayed where she was. Buffy didn't come outside. It wasn't until evening that she gathered herself and went back inside.

The Scooby gang was all there and the books were still spread out, but they had no one's attention at the moment. All eyes were focused on one very sullen looking blonde slayer perched on the edge of the armchair, a few dusty tomes at her feet.

"I'm not going to do it, Giles, so you can just forget it."

"Buffy, I know we've been through this, but, now that you're affected, too, I don't see what other choice we have. Willow told us about your behavior last night, and you told us you were out of control when you were slaying." The blonde looked over at Faith as she walked in from the kitchen. "And lord knows this afternoon you've paced several paths in these floorboards." Buffy shifted her attention back to the watcher. "So I think it's safe to say that you're at risk and you're putting others at risk if you don't."

Faith stayed on the edge of the room, leaning back against the wall to the kitchen, about as far as she could manage from the daggers Dawn was shooting her. She watched as Buffy took on her former watcher.

"Two problems, Giles." The blonde was defiant. "One being needles, and that is sooo not happening." Giles opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't get anything out before the blonde rushed on. "Two, don't forget I had a two! Two is that the stuff nearly got me killed last time, Giles. I think you might know about that...you were there." Her former watcher looked sad at that, but still firm. "You don't know anything about this yet, so I'm _not_ going to be stuck helpless in the meantime."

"That's not entirely true, Buffy. We do know a little." Willow pulled out her notes. "We know that the problem started with the spell to activate the potentials, and we know that it's done something to affect the balance between good and evil." Her eyes flickered over to Faith. "And now we know that it's affecting all slayers, even those who aren't potentials."

Buffy sprang out of the chair and walked over to the window, looking out into the fading light. "But what _is_ it, Will? How do I fight it? I feel like I'm standing on the edge of something _all_ the time." Her knuckles were white as they gripped the sill. "If it was a demon, I could fight it, but I can't get it out of me to fight it."

"Call me dumb here, but is it really separate from you, Buff?" Xander spoke up from the corner. Willow glanced over to see Faith now watching Buffy closely as Giles tried to explain.

"As surprising as it may be, Buffy, Xander is correct. The slayer has been a part of you since you were called. I know you took psychology in college...think of the slayer as your id. You may shape its responses to situations, but it is always there."

"So, Buffy can't always control how it reacts right now." Willow spoke to Giles, but could feel both Buffy and Faith waiting for what she would say. "But it's still Buffy either way." She saw the blonde look over at her dark counterpart, who was staring intently at her left thumbnail. Buffy's brow furrowed at that, then she turned back to Giles.

"But wait a minute...if it's me, then what's with the mandate to self-medicate?"

"Buffy, you're right that it won't make the slayer go away, or even completely calm down," he looked over at her, wanting her to understand, "but it takes away the physical abilities the slayer gives you. So you won't get hurt. Or hurt someone else."

"So why don't Faith and Kennedy have to drink the Kool-Aid?"

"They do, or at least they should." His brows furrowed. "And where is Kennedy, by they way? She should be in here for this."

All eyes turned to Willow.

"She said she was going to work out in the training room this morning, so I guess she's still...oh goddess!" Willow bolted out the backdoor and across the yard, followed by everyone else in the room. The training room was empty, and Faith could vouch for the fact it had been empty much of the day.

"Okay, okay, nobody panic," Dawn herded everyone back inside.

"Quite right. Buffy, Faith, do you have any idea where she might have gone?"

"Probably to find the biggest crowd of vamps she could find. She went when there was still daylight, so she'd be looking for a lair." Buffy glanced over at Faith, who was thinking the same thing. The lair they'd found had 20 vampires in it. They got out alive, but there were two of them.

Willow saw their looks, and ran out the front door to get the car, Buffy and Faith right behind her.

Giles tried to stop them at the door. "Buffy, are you sure you should—"

The blonde cut him off. "We're the only ones who can." And then they were gone.

* * *

It didn't take them long to find her. In fact, Buffy would have ventured a guess that Kennedy was waiting for them. From the road they could see her sitting on top of a crypt in the center of one of the smaller graveyards. Buffy reached over and gave Willow's hand a squeeze as they got out of the car. At least they'd found her.

And then, as Buffy walked towards Kennedy, she froze, looking over to see Faith's horror mirroring her own.

"Will, no...don't..."

The redhead kept walking a few feet further until she, too, stopped and her mouth opened to scream, but nothing came out.

"Hello, lover."


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Just wanted to give fair warning that I may be unable to update again until Monday. Thanks again for reading and for your patience!

* * *

"Ken!" It came out as more of a gasp than a word. "How?" Willow's voice was so small it hurt Buffy to hear it. The vampire five feet away with her girlfriend's voice, her girlfriend's manner, feigned nonchalant.

"Oh, you know, the usual."

"But...how...why did..." The redhead couldn't string together a sentence, wanting to ask a million things and wishing she had to ask none. Kennedy jumped off the crypt. Faith growled and slid her stake down into her hand.

"Good doggy...stay." Kennedy warned the dark slayer before turning back to Willow, her face tight and angry. "Bound to happen, I guess. Slayers fight vampires." She gave the blonde slayer a sneer. "At least some of them do." And turned back to Willow. "And sometimes they lose." She turned back to take in both Buffy and Faith, offering them a theatrical bow. "You'll be happy to know, however, that, after turned, I dusted the remaining ten vampires. It was the least I could do."

Dropping the act, she turned seriously again to Willow, walking slowly towards her lover, aware that the two Chosen Ones were also moving to intercept, tense for the fight. She spoke directly to Willow.

"But that doesn't mean—" Kennedy was cut off as the blonde slayer, seizing on the moment of her distraction, lunged growling at Kennedy, her stake high.

"Buffy, no!" Even as the redhead said it, the energy in the air around Willow funneled down into a ball of magic force that she sent straight at her old friend. It caught Buffy about a step away from the brunette, flinging her back against a tree, cracking those same ribs she had bruised the night before.

"B!" Faith yelled, seeing the other girl clutching her side. She turned and snarled back at the witch, whose spell had dropped her to one knee in the grass. But there was no time for that. Seeing Kennedy moving quickly towards the downed slayer, Faith ran to help, tackling Kennedy, sending them both rolling across the ground. The dark slayer found herself on top, but then fell to one side as a punch slammed into the side of her jaw. Faith tried to keep Kennedy down, but the other slayer pushed out from under her with seeming ease and rolled over, pinning Faith instead. Until Buffy's well-placed kick sent her flying.

The blonde jumped over Faith after her prey, finding Kennedy already up and ready for her, meeting her kicks with blocks and punches of her own. The dark slayer scrambled towards them, only to take a side kick to the chest that sent her flying about ten feet back towards Willow. Pushing herself up off the ground, she looked back, growling in sympathy as she saw the blonde slayer take a vicious punch to her injured ribs. As Buffy cried out, struggling to catch her breath, Kennedy whirled her around to face Willow and Faith. Her hand was tight around the blonde slayer's neck, her fangs only inches from Buffy's jugular.

The dark slayer let out a strangled scream, ready to rush the pair, but knowing Kennedy would break her neck before she got there. Frantic, she turned back to Willow, who was watching the whole scene in horror, still kneeling on the ground where her spell had dropped her.

"Red!" She pleaded. "I can't get there in time!"

Kennedy regarded the squirming, gasping girl in her arms. With her fingernail, she broke the skin next to Buffy's vein, head bending in to taste, eyes on the other Chosen One as she did so. Faith rose to the bait and began to rush the pair only to freeze as she saw Kennedy's grip on the blonde's neck tighten and Buffy stiffen in response. When Kennedy spoke, she addressed Buffy, her voice almost a growl.

"You didn't tell Willow, did you?" The blonde's eyes were wide as she fought for breath, a handhold, a way out.

Willow couldn't look away. "No, please, Ken...don't!"

"You didn't tell her how you tried to seduce me. How you tried to seduce your best friend's girlfriend. You didn't tell her that, did you?" Willow's eyes, still wide and now tinged with hurt, shifted down to meet Buffy's.

Buffy tried to speak, but Kennedy squeezed her hand and the blonde could only let out a choked whimper. A thin trickle of blood wound its way down her neck.

"Red, please! She'll kill her!" Faith's voice was desperate.

Kennedy watched Willow, too, not moving for the long moment when the redhead looked back into her eyes. Not moving when she saw Willow close her eyes and bow her head in incantation. Not moving even when the blast of magical sunlight blinded her and burned her skin, forcing her to let go of her captive. She allowed the girl to stumble away, holding Willow's eyes for a moment more before she ran off into the night to save herself.

* * *

When Faith emerged from the shower, she found Buffy in the hallway in front of Willow's closed door, one hand gripping the door frame while she rested her head against the door.

"How is she?"

"About like you would imagine." Buffy's voice was tight. "Xander's with her. She asked me to leave." The blonde turned wild, agonized eyes back to the dark slayer.

"She wouldn't let me ex—"

"Give her time, B. This is a lot." Faith turned to go downstairs. She felt the blonde watching her.

"Will you stay with me?"

The brunette kept walking. "Think your slayer has about the strangest sense of timing ever, B."

The blonde came down the stairs after her, catching up to the other girl as she started to arrange her pillows on the couch.

"Stop saying 'my slayer.' Didn't you hear earlier...it's me. _I_ am the one who needs you."

"Yeah, B, in that same way that you've needed me so often in the past." A pause, then Faith snapped, "Oh, wait, that didn't happen."

Buffy forced herself to take a deep breath, slow down. "Faith, look, I don't know what this is any more than you do, but you know there's always been something between us. Can't you just let it go at that for now?"

"Somethin' is sure lookin' pretty damn different these days." Faith knew she shouldn't, but she did—she couldn't stop herself. "Sure it's not Kennedy you need?" The blonde winced, just as Faith knew she would.

"Once, Faith. One time, I slipped...and, might I remind you, nothing happened." She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling her anger building at herself. "I haven't been driven crazy by every person in this house—and there are a lot of choices—only you." Faith could see the tension in the other girl, the desperation for some sort of release for her anger and her adrenalin. She knew the same look was in her face. It took all she had to say no. But, of course, she couldn't just say no.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that you've chosen me over the jailbait, the already-coupled, and the middle-aged Brit, but I think I'll just stay where I am, thanks."

Without a word, the blonde stalked back upstairs.

* * *

Faith figured she must have been asleep for a few hours when she awoke with the familiar tingle telling her that the other Chosen One was near. Faith found her in the kitchen, standing in a tank top and pajama bottoms in front of the slider, looking out into the dark. She was quivering.

The blonde slayer felt her come in, but didn't turn around.

"I'm losing it, Faith. I'm trying so hard, but I'm losing it." Her voice was shaking as she swallowed hard. Watching her, the dark slayer could only see that curtain of hair falling down over her, those dark green eyes, those lips... She slowly approached the blonde, moving her hair aside with her hand and leaning in to whisper next to her ear.

"Can't stop yourself, can ya, B?" And before Faith could blink, the blonde had spun around, pushing Faith by the shoulders back into the wall. Little feathered cracks formed in the plaster. The blonde pinned her there with her own body, pressed flush against the other girl's.

_Yeah, that's what I thought._

And then the dark slayer would have been lucky to form a coherent thought as Buffy's mouth found hers. The blonde moved her hands quickly under Faith's t-shirt, and she sighed into her kiss as they found Faith's breasts, the sensitive nipples. The brunette whimpered as she felt Buffy straddling her leg, grinding into her and reached out to pull the other girl's shirt over her head. Her eyes fed on her skin, her perfect breasts rising above the bandaging around her ribs. Reaching an amazed hand, she ran a finger in teasing circles around one nipple. Buffy caught that finger and placed it in her mouth, sucking on it for a moment then trailing her tongue down the inside of Faith's arm, feeling the goosebumps rise behind her until the dark slayer couldn't stand it and brought her mouth back up for a kiss, pressing her hips into the other girl's. Buffy slipped a hand down between them, finding the inside of Faith's boxers and then, finally, touching her, while her mouth found the sensitive spots on Faith's neck, grazing her teeth across her shoulder as she felt the dark slayer's hips moving in time with her fingers, and then, biting down hard as the dark slayer gasped and shuddered against her.

It took Faith only a moment to catch her breath and open her eyes, finding dark green eyes looking intently back into her own. With a growl, she pushed Buffy back the few feet to the kitchen table, pressing her back onto the top of it. She heard the sharp intake of breath.

"Your ribs? You okay?"

"Less talking, more kissing." Never one to deny the Chosen One, Faith leaned over and caught the other girl's mouth in her own, feeling the rumble of her groan as Buffy lifted her hips to let Faith pull off her pajama bottoms, leaving the slayer, pure and simple, before her. Bending down to kiss across her breasts and stomach, up the insides of her thighs, Faith felt Buffy's hands tangled in her hair, heard her whimper as she writhed under her to present more of herself to Faith's mouth. And when the dark slayer tasted her, the blonde couldn't help the loud cry that escaped her lips. Faith lunged quickly up to place her hand across Buffy's mouth, only to have it bitten as Faith continued her rhythm with her fingers, kissing Buffy's stomach and breasts as the blonde arched underneath her, and, with another cry, this time muffled under Faith's hand, she came.

* * *

It was Faith, again, who awoke to find the other slayer, this time naked and entangled with her on the living room couch, practically purring in her sleep.

_I'm going to have to start charging her a carrying fee._

Careful of the blonde slayer's ribs, Faith picked her up in her arms, carried her upstairs, and laid her gently in her bed. For a long moment, she stood there and watched her shift fitfully in her sleep, feeling her hands tighten into fists as she kept herself from walking those few feet and joining her there.

Instead, she turned away and walked back downstairs, bloody half-moons stinging on her palms.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: The website has been experiencing difficulties in getting alerts out re: new chapters, so, in case anyone's confused, there is a chapter 15 that was posted on Friday which precedes this one.

* * *

Hearing no response to her soft knock the next morning, Willow breathlessly opened the door to Buffy's bedroom, praying she hadn't lost another slayer.

But no, Buffy was there, sprawled out face-down and cross-ways across the bed, tangled in the sheets. Leaning against the doorframe, the redhead watched her old friend as she whimpered a little in her sleep. Willow had no doubt Buffy was as exhausted mentally and physically as she was by the events of the last few days, but knew also that her slayer was running at high speed in spite of that.

She knew that speed. That unbridled energy. Closing her eyes, she remembered the way she and Kennedy had made love the night before last.

Was it really that recent?

The redhead put her hand over her face, feeling tears—more tears—behind them as she laid her head against the doorframe. She did not move until she felt a hand resting on her shoulder. Opening her eyes, she saw Giles watching her, his sorrow written on his face. Grateful in this largely parentless world to have a father figure for those times when everything just seemed too Big, too Important to deal with on her own, she leaned into him. Together they looked for a moment at the blonde slayer fighting in her dreams before Giles reached out and pulled the door to, leading the young woman downstairs.

As they passed through the living room, they found the other Chosen One still asleep, curled into a tight frowning ball, pillows strewn across the floor around her. Giles pointed to the deck and motioned that he would join her in a moment. Stepping outside into the cool of the morning, Willow knew that it would be so easy to start crying again. She would just have to think of Kennedy's face, some cocksure phrase she would say, the surprising gentleness of her touch... See, she knew it would be easy. But, wiping those tears away, Willow knew it wasn't what she needed now. Now she needed answers, solutions, ways out, ways to fix this. And the man who might be able to help her was coming quietly through the slider with two mugs of hot tea.

They sat so that they could see the living room and the bottom of the stairs, both aware that their primary problem was the two increasingly-feral slayers currently asleep within. But it was to a different problem that Giles first turned.

"I'm so sorry, Willow! Xander told me last night. I can't imagine what you must be going through right now." Despite what he said, the redhead could see in his face that he knew loss, had experienced it many times just in the years she had known him. And knew that he was aware of her losses as well. Even though she was young enough to pass them off as just the maturity that comes inevitably with time, he was close enough to know that maturity belied her years.

And yet he was right. Every loss was painful and new. Every time. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself another tear, taking another deep breath and then opening her eyes to look off into the morning sky, keeping her gaze there as she addressed the Englishman across from her.

"I couldn't believe it, Giles. I tried and I tried, but my mouth wouldn't work and my brain wouldn't work and I just couldn't put the Kennedy in my mind together with the Kennedy vampire talking to me, you know?" She took a deep breath. "And, Goddess help me, all I could think was 'Not again. I've already had one taken away so why would you take away another one?' And then I thought, no, this is worse—to see her still there, the same but different. It's worse than her being dead."

"Willow, it's only natural that you would be in shock. Anyone would have been. How could you have expected she would take on a lair by herself? We all fool ourselves about the slayers—they always seem so strong that we think they cannot fail. We know they can, that they are much more fragile than we would have them be, but we don't want to believe it." His words were gentle, soothing, but Willow wasn't ready to be soothed.

"But, Giles, I should have known! We all knew what was happening with the younger slayers, I saw what was happening to Buffy, and I should have known from the way—" Her voice broke a little. "—from the way Kennedy was with me the night before, I should have known and I didn't keep her from going. And then I looked at her there in the cemetery and I could see what she was—I could see it!—and I didn't want to see it, and that put Buffy in danger. Giles, she nearly died because I just sat there!"

He reached over to put his hand on Willow's arm. "Willow, she would have put herself in harm's way anyway. There was nothing you could have done. If she could have, she would have slayed the demon that killed Kennedy. It's her duty."

"But that's part of the problem, Giles. I shouldn't have put Buffy in danger, but I couldn't let her kill Kennedy."

Giles took a deep breath. "Now, Willow, I know it's difficult because she still wears Kennedy's face, but once she was turned—"

The redhead leaned forward, her eyes red-rimmed but bright. "No! I mean, yes, she is a vampire, but, Giles, I could see the slayer still in her, too! I looked out during the fight and there were the auras of three slayers, not just two. And if the slayer is still there, then Kennedy may be there, too."

* * *

"B?" The dark slayer knocked on the bedroom door, opening it when she received no reply. "They sent me up here to get you up for a meeting. Volunteered, figuring Xander might end up seein' a little more than he bargained for, what with you bein' in the buff Buff and all." The blonde _was_ decent, tangled as she was in the sheets, but still clearly naked underneath it all. And somewhat dead to the world, forcing Faith to go over and lay a hand on one of the tanned arms flung out. At the touch, the blonde sprang up, pouncing on Faith and knocking her to the floor before she could even yelp in surprise.

The blonde slayer sat astride her, clearly disoriented from sleep, her hand to her forehead, shaking her head as if to shake out her dreams. And naked and perfect as she had been the night before. The half-moon cuts on Faith's palms burned as she reopened them, gritting her teeth at the heat building too quickly inside her. Feeling the other girl squirm a little drew Buffy back to the present. Seeing the dark slayer beneath her clearly brought images to mind for Buffy as well. Faith saw the other slayer's eyes darken and her breath quicken as her fingers unconsciously started tracing their way up Faith's arms and across her collarbone.

"I heard a crash...is everyone—?" Dawn popped her head around the door only to immediately withdraw it. "Gaah! Stop that! Buffy!" Snapped to the present by her sister's voice, Buffy leapt off the other girl, and Faith promptly ran for the door, shut it behind her, and leaned back against it, blowing out a long breath. Swallowing hard, she opened her eyes to find Dawn glaring at her.

"Just don't even." With that, the dark slayer stormed downstairs.

* * *

As everyone assembled in the living room, Faith perched on the window sill, carefully across the room from where Buffy stood, arms crossed near the kitchen.

"All of you know that Buffy, Willow, and Faith found Kennedy last night as a vampire. However, I think Willow has some news that we ought to start off with before we go any further." The watcher stepped aside and gave the floor to the witch. Seeing how tired she looked, Buffy's grimaced, reaching out to lean against the kitchen countertop, gripping its edge tightly as she kicked herself for not telling Willow about Kennedy sooner.

If Xander and Dawn were surprised at Willow's revelation that Kennedy might still be a slayer, Buffy and Faith were not. Both had experienced her strength the night before, the power in her punches that was more than the average vampire could muster. Giles watched the slayers closely as they described the fight and Kennedy's moves, seeing both grow increasingly agitated as the adrenalin of that battle came back to them.

"So if she's the slayer still, what do we do about it? How do we fight it?" The blonde slayer shifted into action, trusting that together they could come up with a plan—they way they always did—and that she could get out and do something instead of talking.

"I'm not sure that you..." Buffy's former watcher trailed off a little, seeing the blonde's frown, backing up to start again. "Willow's news complicates something else that Xander thought of yesterday."

The young man saw his cue and addressed the group. "Well, we know that it was the spell activating the potentials that seems to have done this, so, I was thinking, maybe if we reversed that spell, then things would go back to normal."

"You're going to take away their power!?"

"But Ken's one of those potentials! If her slayer goes, _she_ might be gone!"

Buffy and Willow's comments came simultaneously, angry and insistent, but deadened the room in their wake. Dawn stepped into that silence.

"Okay, nobody's saying we're doing anything yet. We're just trying to get all the options and all the information on the table, right Giles?"

"Quite right, D—" He could hardly get it out before Buffy cut him off.

"Find another way." Her voice was low and hard as she moved into the living room, turning to address her sister. "Dawn, you can't just go around giving people something like that and then taking it away. You can't treat people like that! They've put their lives on the line as slayers! And, now, you're gonna just say 'gee, thanks' and send them on their way?"

Faith stood, her eyes shifting quickly between Xander, Giles, and Dawn. "Would it work?"

"Faith!" Hearing her name at once from both Willow and Buffy, she swung around to meet their glares, focusing in on the blonde slayer.

"Look, all I'm sayin' is that somethin' needs to happen so we don't crack, and if this is the only thing that works..."

"But what if Kennedy's still in there? What if we can get her back?"

Faith felt Willow's pain, but life had taught her there were a lot of things you just had to let go because they were never going to get better. Sometimes life sucked—you deal. "You know I wish we could, Red, but she's not just gonna sit there while we figure this out, and we can't fight her in the meantime."

"Speak for yourself." Buffy snapped, taking a step towards the other girl.

Faith bristled at that, charging over to get in the blonde slayer's face. "No, I'm speakin' for you, too, B. Got a wicked bite mark on my shoulder says you're getting a little too in touch with your animal side, too." The dark slayer yanked aside the shoulder of her tank top to reveal a clear bite mark, bruised an angry purple against otherwise pale skin.

"Oh my god, Buffy! You did that?" Dawn squeaked from across the room.

"And I don't think that's all of it." Xander pointed quietly at the indentation in the kitchen wall from the night before. The blonde slayer looked wild eyed from the wall, to the bite mark, to all the other eyes watching her, then, tinged with hurt, back to the dark eyes of her counterpart only a few inches away.

"That is _not_ what we're talking about here. What we're talking about is figuring out what to do about Kennedy. And _I _could have taken her last night if Willow hadn't stopped me." Across the room, the witch put her hand over her eyes and sunk back onto the arm of the chair.

"Okay, that's enough." Xander walked over between the two slayers, putting his hand on Buffy's shoulder. "You're making our point for us, Buff. You just want to go out, guns blazing, and we're not sure that's the best plan right now."

"The best plan? What are you waiting for, someone else to get killed...or worse?" The blonde snapped back, shrugging off his hand with a rough jerk of her shoulder.

"Easy, Buffy." Giles cautioned as he moved towards the slayer.

"Easy? What's easy about this, Giles?" Her words were sharp and her fists balled at her sides. "Is it losing Kennedy to vampires? Is it watching your best friend be devastated by her former lover? Hey, I been there...it isn't easy. But you know what? I did what I had to do and I killed Angel. Now if I can make this easier for Willow, I'm going to."

"Easier how? By trying to seduce her again, Buffy?" The redhead had had enough as she came across the room to confront the blonde slayer, a little energy crackling in her right hand as she clenched it.

Faith bared her teeth a little, giving a warning growl. "Watch it, Red." Only to find herself pushed backwards by Xander, still staunchly defending his old friend. Only Giles' calming hand on her shoulder kept her from lashing out in return.

Meanwhile, Buffy bristled in front of the redhead, backing up against the wall, her voice filled with anger and self-disgust, eyes and fists clenched tight. "No, Will, you've got to believe me, I didn't mean...it just...nothing happened...I shouldn't have..." At the last choked word, she turned and ran, jerking open the slider, flinging herself into the backyard and across the grass to the training room.

Sighing, Giles turned to Xander and Dawn. "Try to find us another way." To Willow and Faith. "Come with me. I may need both of you to control her."


	17. Chapter 17

The trio found the blonde slayer raining wild blows on the punching bag, which swung back and forth in futile protest. Faith could feel her energy from just inside the doorway. The redheaded witch could as well, seeing the awful, bright aura haloing her like an inferno. Giles stood, glasses in hand, pinching the bridge of his nose for a moment before exhaling and motioning them to stay back as he approached that unbridled force.

Glancing over at Faith, Willow could easily decipher the emotions on the other girl's face. While never hard to read, the dark slayer's usual veneer of hard indifference was slipping more now, allowing her guilt and anger, her longing and crushing insecurity open play over her features. She would not have liked to know how much she showed. And her forehead creased in annoyance when Willow pulled her away from the blonde slayer.

"Are you two okay?" The redhead's gaze flicked down to the now-partially-hidden mark on Faith's shoulder, then back up to meet the other girl's gaze. Across those eyes, she saw the familiar Faith persona slide into place, shrugging her off.

"5 x 5. Who'd a thought B was a biter?"

They both said nothing for a moment, watching Buffy's former watcher talk to her while she kept up her steady drumming of punches. Faith continued in a softer voice.

"You know she didn't...I mean, Kennedy was kinda usin' some revisionist history there..." The redhead sighed, mostly at herself.

"Yeah, I know. I know the Buffy I know wouldn't have done that. And I shouldn't have said that back in there. That was bad. But she was just making me so angry...she wouldn't listen about Kennedy! She was just all let's-kill-her girl and I wanted her to listen!"

"She's tryin', Red...we both are. You don't know how easy it would be to just..." The brunette trailed off, closing her eyes and breathing deeply, trying to ignore the Chosen One's energy, calling to her, wanting her to be there fighting next to her, having sex with her. "Shit." The last word was so low, Willow didn't quite hear it, only piecing it together as Faith ripped off her shirt and set off for the rings in her sports bra and sweat pants.

* * *

Over at the punching bag, Giles was trying to draw the slayer away from her workout to talk to him.

"Buffy?" She didn't answer him. He could see the knuckles of her hands raw and, in some places bloodied, from where she hadn't taken the time to tape them. He could see she'd been crying.

"Buffy, look at me." She stopped her blows, reaching her arms around the bag to still it, pressing her forehead into it as Giles saw the muscles in her jaw clenching.

"Giles, what am I going to do?" The sentence came out almost as a groan from the face still pressed into battered leather. Turning her head slightly, she looked over at him, eyes as wide and desperate as they had been in the living room earlier. "Is this me? I don't even know anymore." She swallowed. "And there's a part of me that doesn't even care."

He reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder, feeling its muscles spasming slightly. "You've got to hang in there, Buffy. We're going to figure out how to stop this."

"But what if you don't!" Her words were coming more rushed now. "What if you can't stop it? What then? Am I just the slayer? No more Buffy? You guys said this whole thing was like an evolutionary thing...am I on self-destruct?"

"I don't know, Buffy." He tried to be honest.

But Buffy had wanted him to lie to her. She pushed away roughly from the bag, pacing next to it as he cast a worried glance over at Willow, head in her hands next to the door, and Faith, working on the rings.

"If I'm going to be like this, the least we can do is make use of me. I'm all grrr, you know, so why don't you just let me loose? I could cut the demon population way back, believe me, and I'd bet I could deal with Kennedy, too."

"Buffy, we don't know yet whether Kennedy can be—" The blonde interrupted, wheeling to face him.

"Giles, we do know! They always can be and they have to die anyway. That's just the way it is."

"Now, Buffy, just because that's what happened with Angel doesn't mean—"

"No, it does mean. That's the way these things work. Someone has to step in because she's a vampire and because she's going to try to kill people on my watch. And I'm not going to let that happen!" Her eyes were flashing now, flicking up to the windows near the ceiling to gauge the time until nightfall, until she could hunt. She growled a little to see it was still a few hours away.

He looked at her sadly, feeling for the millionth time that all of his watcher training, everything he'd been told, was hardly relevant to the California girl he had been sent so many years ago to watch over. "You know I can't let you do that."

"Then you better figure something else out before the sun sets." She didn't have to say that he wouldn't be able to stop her.

* * *

Giles reconvened with Willow, still sitting near the door, now watching Buffy and Faith with a faraway look in her eyes as they put their bodies through the paces.

"Willow?" Hearing Giles, she pulled her eyes away from the slayers and back to the matter at hand. "I need to go inside and see whether Xander and Dawn are having any luck with alternatives." He paused, looking back to Buffy. "I don't think we can leave them alone...Buffy especially is too impulsive, too unpredictable right now. I don't want one or both of them to..." He trailed off, knowing the witch would know the dangers of that already.

Willow heard his question. "It's okay, Giles. I can stay. I'd kinda rather be here anyway. They're sort of comforting, in some weird way...they remind me of Ken, when she used to train in here." She looked over at him, trying to be realistic about the situation. "And, besides, I don't think you could stop them if they wanted to go. I'm not sure I could either, but, no offense, I think I'd have a better shot at it." The older man gave a small smile at that, acknowledging her point and her power. She looked down at the floor for a moment, then raised her eyes back to him, her voice a little shaky this time. "Giles, it was my spell that did all this—" She raised her hand to stop him from interrupting her. "No. I know what you're going to say and I would do it again if I had to, but I really need to fix this. So if there's anything you find, anything that I could help with, I'll do it."

"I know." He laid a hand on her shoulder for a moment, then went to help the others.

* * *

Willow felt so worn out, in every way possible, that it wasn't surprising she found herself fall into almost a trance watching Faith doing Tai Chi at the other end of the room. Seeing the dark slayer practicing those smooth, controlled moves was startling at first—not exactly what she expected from the self-described bad girl. But she figured that Angel must have taught it to her. Now his way to try to contain his demon had become hers as well.

It took her a moment to realize that the other slayer was shifting from foot to foot next to her.

"Buffy?"

Seeing the redhead had acknowledged her, the blonde rushed straight into her apology. "Will, I don't know how to say this any better, but I'm just so totally sorry about the thing with Kennedy and I didn't mean for you to find out like that even though nothing happened I swear!" The words tripped over themselves out of the blonde's mouth as she glanced nervously at Willow's reaction.

"Buffy, you don't have to apologize...I understand. Not going to say I didn't wish it didn't happen, but it's not your fault." The blonde flopped down, relieved, next to her.

"Oh my god, I thought you hated me!"

Willow gave the other girl a small smile. "No. And I'm sorry if I made you feel all guilt-trippy earlier."

"No worries. I knew I should have told you earlier, but I just...I didn't know what it was or why it happened and so I panicked." The blonde went on in a softer voice. "I'm really sorry, Will, about...you know, Kennedy and everything." The redhead closed her eyes for a moment, willing herself not to cry. Again.

"I know." She opened her eyes again to hold the dark green ones looking back at her. "But you've got to give me some time with Kennedy. I was trying to tell you in there...I think she's still inside. I could see the slayer, and I sort of got this feeling she wouldn't hurt me." The redhead was snapped out of her memory of that fight and Kennedy's face at the end as the blonde next to her shot off the bench.

"Will, she almost killed me, in case you hadn't noticed!" Buffy stretched her neck to one side, revealing the small bandage where the other slayer had pricked her skin. "She drank my blood!" Willow recoiled from the shouting blonde whose entire demeanor had changed as if someone had flicked a light switch. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Faith had stopped her practice and moved close, tense. The blonde railed on. "If she doesn't kill me, she's going to kill someone else! I don't care how much you love her, Will, I can't let that happen!"

A knock at the door interrupted her tirade and Buffy whirled around, stalking back over to the punching bag as Faith watched her go and Willow turned to find Giles, anxious, motioning her outside.

Willow closed the door behind her, hoping there weren't any fireworks in her absence. Giles jumped in as soon as it was shut.

"Willow, Xander just told me that he can't get ahold of Vanessa. Apparently, she was supposed to meet him over here tonight. Her roommate says she left to walk over here a little while ago, but she should be here by now. Xander thinks it may be Kennedy." Willow winced, looking at the sky, finding that the day had passed on her and it was dusk.

Her voice was quiet but resolute. "I've got to go."

"You can't go alone, Willow. I hope she's not in the mood for a fight, but, if she is, you and Xander won't be a match for her."

Both of them looked to the closed door behind them.

"Giles, it's got to be Faith. Buffy will kill Kennedy, and I think Buffy seems to make Kennedy really mad now anyway."

"Agreed. But how are we going to make Buffy stay?"

"Faith's not going to like it, but I think I may have an idea."

* * *

_Red, you can't be serious!_ Faith kept her eyes on Buffy as Willow had suggested, even as she heard the redhead's voice filling her mind. _She'll fuckin' kill me if I try to get her anywhere near those things._

Three pairs of dull gray manacles hung limply from the four-foot chains anchored to the wall a few feet behind Buffy. They had put them there when the room was built because, as Xander said, you never knew when you might need manacles. They hadn't yet.

_I don't think you should try force, Faith._

_Wha—? Oh,_ no _way! You can't ask me to—_

_Faith, it's the only way to distract her enough for you to do it. We've got to go soon...we don't have time, and I'm not sure I could knock her down long enough with magic even right now._

Faith knew it was true. And hated every goddamn minute of it.

_Fuck me! _Faith's last words were almost a snarl to herself. Willow watched the dark slayer get up, steeling herself.

Faith was careful not to startle Buffy as she approached, not really wanting to get a fist to the jaw for her trouble. Silently she came up on the other side of the bag, holding it to her chest as the other girl wailed away at it until, with one last frustrated punch, she groaned and rested her cheek against the bag. Not really knowing what to say and not being so good with the play acting, Faith let Buffy make the first move. And it didn't take the blonde slayer long before she turned her eyes from the floor to Faith, sliding them across to the bite mark she'd left the night before.

"Are you...? Did I hurt you?" She was still breathing heavy from her workout, her eyes intent on that mark, voice quiet.

"You know me, B. Always liked it rough." Faith gave the expected response, her flippancy trying to disguise her own quickening breath, the memory of the smaller girl underneath her on the table, her arching back...

Her voice didn't fool the blonde, whose eyes shifted back up to meet the other slayer's, seeing those same memories there. "This morning...you weren't next to me."

"Thought we might scare the kiddies, bein' all naked and shit on the couch."

The blonde moved around the bag towards the dark slayer, who backed towards the wall, fighting for control in the face of the beautiful predator closing in. Buffy's voice was a rumble in her throat. "You could have stayed with me." Reaching out, she grabbed one of Faith's hands as the other slayer tensed at the sudden move. "I know you wanted to." Buffy's fingertip traced the cuts on Faith's palms. At the touch, Faith squeezed her eyes shut, feeling her back hit the wall, the other girl pressing up against her with a now familiar heat, all else melting away.

Until the metal cuff clicked around Buffy's wrist.

Instantly, the blonde's face turned dark, hurt, already straining to free herself as Faith slipped out from in front of her.

"You would use me like that?" Her voice was dangerously low.

The other Chosen One couldn't look her in the eye. "You and me, B. This is what we do." With that, she walked over to where Willow was waiting, hearing the chain clinking as Buffy fought to get loose, hearing her yelling at Faith to come back, knowing she couldn't turn around.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Thanks once again to all who are reading! And thanks particularly for the reviews...I am always excited to read them!

* * *

Willow arched an eyebrow at Faith as soon as they were outside, still hearing the frustrated Chosen One thrashing against her confinement within. Faith's mouth was set into a hard line, eyes straight ahead.

"There aren't words for how much you owe me, Red." The redhead could only agree as she rushed to catch up with the slayer storming towards the house. Xander was pacing in the living room and jumped for his keys as he saw them enter. Giles' eyes shifted quickly from Willow's to Faith's to the training room outside. Willow answered the question in them, since Faith obviously wasn't going to.

"The plan worked. But she's not happy."

Giles sniffed. "I can only imagine. I'll stay with her to make sure the chains hold."

"Might want to bring some ear plugs."

"Duly noted, Willow." Turning to go, he looked back at her as Faith and Xander were already disappearing out the door. "It goes without saying, but...be careful." She nodded then rushed to follow the others.

Xander put his foot on the accelerator as soon as she had shut the door, speeding off even though he had no more idea than the rest of them where to go. They could only trust that Kennedy wanted to be found. And try every cemetery in Cleveland until then.

Willow spoke into the quiet car, looking into the backseat at the glowering slayer. "I just want everyone clear on the plan...we aren't setting out to kill Kennedy."

Xander had been silent up until then. "Will, she's got Vanessa. We'll do what we gotta do to get her back." He glanced up to find the dark slayer in his rearview mirror, staring out the window into the night.

"I know that, Xander...I'm just saying that we're not _trying_ to kill her and if there's a way around it we won't. We'll just get Vanessa back, then go back to the research to find some way out of this. Okay?" Xander's face was set, turned to the road. "Faith?"

The other Chosen One kept her eyes on the dark. "Not makin' any promises, Red. Wasn't my idea to bring me along." Feeling the redhead still staring at her, she turned to look her square in the eyes. The anger and pain there nearly took Willow's breath away until, in a blink, she saw them soften slightly, a little brown coming back into the black of them. "I'll do what I can." That was all Willow was going to get, and the slayer turned back to the night, leaving everyone in the car alone with their thoughts.

* * *

"I can't believe I get the B team." Kennedy looked so human, staring, amused, at Faith, who was waiting to see how this was going to go down. "And, no, Faith, it's not the 'B' you're thinking of." The dark slayer's lip curled as the vampire used her own personal nickname for the blonde Chosen One.

Willow stepped in, trying to draw Kennedy's focus away from the volatile slayer who, thankfully, for now seemed to be waiting for Willow's signal. It wasn't a hard thing to do. Kennedy had been watching her since they had all piled out of the car, oblivious to Xander's entreaties to let Vanessa go.

"What do you want, Ken?" The brunette had her arm slung around Xander's girlfriend, who looked equal parts pissed off and scared, but, as of yet, showed no signs of harm.

"To see you." The answer was so straightforward it caught Willow off-guard for a moment, before the brunette slipped back into her earlier mocking tone. "Course, if I'd known it was going to be a party, I'd have worn my special party hat."

Willow's voice was quiet. "You know you didn't need to kidnap her to see me." She started to walk slowly towards her former lover. "Why don't you let her go?" And for a moment, Kennedy looked as though she would, glancing at Vanessa as if she couldn't figure out what in the world the girl was doing next to her in the first place. But out of the corner of her eye she saw Xander raising his crossbow, pointing it at her heart. She bared her teeth at that, pulling Vanessa around in between her and that arrow.

"And miss the fun of seeing pirate over there try to aim straight enough to hit me and not his girlfriend?" She saw the frustrated young man lower his weapon, looking across the grass to Faith, on Kennedy's other side. The vampire raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me she's your savior? What's the matter, Miss Chosen One and Only afraid she couldn't control herself?" Willow saw the dark slayer tense, pulling her stake from her waistband.

"Ken, I know what happened between you two. It's okay...you don't want to do this." The redhead pleaded, trying to buy a little more time. She could see the girl's aura, the brightness of the slayer still around her. Kennedy had to be there!

"Don't I? Isn't this what vampires do? Isn't that what I am? Thought the fangs were a dead giveaway...no pun intended." Kennedy began walking towards Willow, still dragging her captive, but staring into her lover's eyes.

"Is that what you feel like?" At her words, the witch thought she could see the slightest glimmer of uncertainty.

And then Vanessa made her move. A sharp elbow to the vampire's ribs was enough to startle her captor, and almost give her enough chance to leap clear. Almost. Kennedy lashed out and caught her around the waist, dragging her back in, fangs now out as Willow and Xander simultaneously cried out for her to stop.

Then the dark slayer slammed into her side, knocking both girls to the ground. Faith pushed Vanessa free as Kennedy's fist connected with her jaw, stunning her momentarily, before she snapped to with a growl and lunged to catch the vampire before she could get over Faith to reach Vanessa again. Faith jerked Kennedy back, swinging her into the side of a crypt, following quickly to press her advantage. But she wasn't quite able to pin the other girl before she got off a kick that sent the dark slayer stumbling back a few steps. Instantly, Kennedy was there, raining down blows as Faith felt her body take over, responding to strikes almost before they happened. She felt the slayer in her exult in her freedom, the purity of trading kick for punch that she was built for. Moving towards that inevitable stake to heart.

If she could only get there! Kennedy's terrible strength slammed into her with every jab she got in under Faith's defenses, the breath knocked out of her as she was pressed back over the top of a gravestone, straining to hold those teeth away from her neck. And so the slayer dug deeper within, pulling on reserves to keep the vampire off of her and keep herself in between it and the people behind her, their voices barely reaching her through the fury of the battle.

Pushing for the advantage, she launched herself again at the vampire, unfazed by the glancing blow to her shoulder as she came in close, rolling against Kennedy, jabbing an elbow back into her stomach, feeling the other girl double over enough for her to catch her off-balance, ready to plunge in her stake before she had a chance to straighten up.

_Faith!_ The shout rang clear in her head. The dark slayer turned back, snarling, to its source. And, for a moment, Willow wasn't sure Faith could stop.

But she didn't have the chance to find out as Kennedy seized on the distraction to knock the stake from Faith's hand and clasp the slayer tight against her. Strain as she might, Faith could get no leverage, every fiber of her screaming in protest as she felt the other girl hovering over her exposed neck.

Willow saw her lover's face, creased terrifying with the all-too-familiar ridges, the deadly fangs, bend in and could only think to do something—anything!—running towards the pair even as Kennedy's teeth slid in and the slayer stiffened at the puncture, still trying to fight as Willow still ran, the air around her crackling as she amassed energy she didn't even know was there and flung it out ahead of her.

The bolt struck both girls at once, knocking both of them back onto the ground. Faith rolled groaning away, hand clutching at her neck to stem the bleeding. Kennedy's face instantly reverted, only a little trickle of blood at her lip that she tasted, horrified, as she met the redhead's eyes.

And then the arrow punched through her shoulder, Xander's aim, as she had said, not perfect, but close enough. With a cry, she ran off into the night.

* * *

Giles sprang to his feet when he saw Willow and Faith at the training room door, running to them.

"Is Vanessa...? Everyone?" Willow nodded, but his eyes flickered worriedly over to the battered dark slayer, to the dried blood crusted down her neck. She did not look at him, her eyes fixed on the blonde lying curled on the floor, still chained.

Sighing, he turned to Willow, who was also looking at Buffy. "After trying to pull the chain out of the wall and calling me every imaginative name in the book, she finally collapsed, exhausted." He tried to catch the redhead's eyes. "Willow? Is Kennedy...?" Swallowing, she turned to look at him.

"Faith didn't kill her."

"Leave." Both Willow and Giles turned as Faith's voice cut into their conversation, finding the slayer shaking, still staring at Buffy.

"Faith, I don't know if that's such a..."

"Lock the door, put some magic shit around it...I don't fuckin' care. Just go."

So silently they did. Outside, Giles looked back. "Willow, I think we may have lost them." He laid a hand on her shoulder. "We're going to have to reverse the spell." Willow started to speak, but Giles went on in a softer voice. "It isn't fair to ask this of them." The redhead closed her mouth, giving the door one last glance before turning back towards the house.

* * *

The dark slayer stood over the blonde, watching that face, still angry even in sleep, her chest rising and falling with each shallow breath. Faith picked up another loop of chain from the wall, letting it slide through her fingers until she reached the cuff at the end, then clicked it home around her wrist.

Turning, she found the other slayer awake and staring at her, eyes red-rimmed, hard and dark.

"You left me here." The blonde's voice was hoarse from all her yelling. "You played me, and then you locked me up and left me here."

There was nothing for Faith to say, so she said nothing. Dropping to her knees, she reached out a hand to take the other girl's captive wrist, turning it over until she could see the bruising, the abrasions in the skin underneath the metal where the slayer had tried to break free.

The blonde never took her eyes from Faith's face, her voice still quiet in the dark, empty room. "How could you do that to me?"

The younger girl held up her own now-cuffed wrist. "Not gonna happen this time." The blonde shifted her eyes to the shackle, then, for the first time, noticed the blood on her neck, partially hidden in the waves of her hair.

Her eyes flashing, a growl formed in her throat. "Who?" She reached out her hand, the chain clinking as she lifted it, the tips of her fingers brushing at the raw edge of the wound. "Who hurt you?"

"Doesn't matter anymore."

Grabbing the blonde's hand, she pulled her in, capturing her mouth, hand sliding around to grip the back of Buffy's neck, pulling her down on top of her, growling at the other girl's feverish response. She tilted her chin to the ceiling, and her eyes rolled back as the blonde's kisses made their way down her neck, wincing as she touched the bite there. Faith felt her rip aside her shirt to allow more access to skin, hesitating for a moment over the bite mark—her own—on the dark slayer's shoulder.

Sensing the other girl pause, Faith reached up, bringing Buffy's neck to her own mouth, bringing her teeth against the skin where she could feel the blood in her vein and biting down just slightly. She heard the blonde slayer's breath catch as she did, feeling the quiver in the slayer's arms as she fought against collapsing into the sensation. The dark slayer reached out to hold her, hands on either side of her waist, then sliding up under her shirt. Buffy quickly stripped off that shirt and bra, flinging them to the side as Faith's hands came up to her breasts, fingernails tracing the shape of them, sitting up to take them in her mouth as the metal of their chains clinked against each other and ran cold over their skin.

Astride her, the blonde arched back, groaning at Faith's mouth, reaching down inside the brunette's sweatpants to find the other girl so ready for her, feeling the teeth closing on her nipple as she touched her. Faith worked her own hand up the leg of Buffy's shorts, hearing her cry out as dark slayer slid two fingers in.

Faith did not muffle that sound this time, joining her instead. The blonde's beautiful abandon matched her own, matched the rhythm that both of them were making, the frenzy of her kisses, the stars behind her eyelids, the nails of Buffy's other hand raking across her back, until she could feel the blonde's taut muscles shudder as she cried out and feel the explosions in her own head and she collapsed, with Buffy, nearly unconscious, on the cold floor.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Thanks so much for all the great reviews of the last chapter--I'm really happy to know people are enjoying this (and that I'm not just living in my own private world over here)! Given the holiday weekend, the next update may not come until early next week.

* * *

Slowing coming awake, the brunette realized that in the night they must have stripped entirely, leaving them naked as the first slanting rays of sun made their way through the windows above. The blonde slayer was pulled tight to her chest. She was curled protectively around her, feeling the purring rumble of the smaller girl's sleep and knowing that it would never—never!—be any better than it was at that moment when nothing mattered and her slayer had pushed aside everything but this girl in her arms. The prospect of slaying with her. Doing everything with her.

Shifting to pull her closer, she heard the metal reminder of her confinement scrape across the floor and frowned at that, which would have to be dealt with later. She could not be expected to stay here forever—she was the slayer! Or a slayer. She closed her eyes, smelling the scent of the other girl's hair, the skin of her shoulder, the kindred spirit in front of her. The dark slayer felt the smoothness of that tanned stomach underneath her casually possessive hand, moving as she slowly woke up to cup the underside of a breast, brushing a thumb across that curve.

The blonde slayer stirred, a little murmur as she stretched into the brunette's touch. She felt the nips of teeth and lips along her shoulder and gave a sleepy growl of pleasure, trying to arch more of herself—as much as possible!—against the other girl's roaming hand, gasping as that hand slid down to touch her and her hips moved almost of their own volition. Held in place by the dark slayer's body behind her, she pressed back into the heat of that. Between the bites along her arm and the fingers touching her, her own body was reduced to two twin pinpoints of sensation, each pulling the string of her taut, groaning for release that seemed as though it would—terribly, wonderfully—never come. Until she did, collapsing for the second time in a few hours into the floor.

Regaining her breath, she spun around, pinning the other girl who looked up into the dark green, painfully aware of the rest of the blonde slayer's body pressed against her length. As the blonde bent to trail her tongue across the bite on her neck, all of the night before came flooding in, only to flitter away as the mouth found her nipple, hair brushing lightly across her chest as her breath quickened. Looking down, she could see the crown of the head of the slayer kissing her, feel the vibration of her purr, but then had to throw her head back as the slayer brushed fingers along her inner thighs, pushing them slightly apart before her tongue dipped down to taste her and then it was just a mantra of _oh god oh god oh god_ because slayers don't just believe there are gods, they know it, and the dark slayer knew it and prayed to every last nameless one as she clutched her hands in that blonde mane, raising her hips to meet her until she could not even think to pray anymore and, this time, really did pass out.

* * *

Willow wisely told Giles to wait outside as she unlocked the training room door midway through the morning. Giles may not have known what she would find, but she did, and had come prepared for the two slayers, lying naked and chained against the far wall. At the sight of them, so obviously post-coital, the marks of their rough affections plain, she winced and had to look away, thinking of the other slayer she had so often awakened to find wrapped around her in the way Buffy was now wrapped around Faith, leg and arm flung across the other girl, face buried in her neck.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, Giles was right. She would have to reverse the spell. The spell that had meant so much to their fight when she was able to pull it off. The spell that had brought her Kennedy. As she laid the cover gently over the entwined slayers, she could see their auras, blinding, not tempered in the way they should be, but running rampant. She had turned her old friend into something else entirely.

Even if Willow had stayed in her room during the morning while she knew Dawn and Xander were determining the ritual for the afternoon. Even if Kennedy's last horrified face kept her awake. Even then, she had to do it.

And she was pretty sure Buffy wasn't going to like it. Not only because she'd resisted so vehemently before, but also because she had just shifted in her sleep closer to Faith. Willow suspected things were going to get a wee bit more complicated for Buffy once her slayer wasn't making things easy anymore.

She dropped two sets of clothes on the floor next to them.

* * *

Everyone assembled in the training room. It was, after all, the biggest spot to do the spell, the only place they could fit, in Xander's words, the Big Honkin' Circle of Normalcy that all the younger slayers would have to stand in. And nevermind that Buffy and Faith were still chained in that room and no one was quite sure they wanted to unchain them yet.

The blonde glowered at the proceedings, oblivious to the curious looks that ran between the chains and Faith, Faith and Buffy, and Buffy and her chains. Standing at the furthest extent of her captivity, she wanting to go to those younger, miserable slayers, who all still looked as though they were suffering from the flu, who had been forced to sit idle so many nights while she herself had gotten to fight.

They, in turn, looked back longing at her, at the quiver that ran under her skin as she strained against her bonds, the darkness of her eyes. Even though there were many times they didn't, none of them, want to be slayers, they wanted it now when it was what their bodies wanted, underneath the dulling drugs they'd been given. They wanted it now when it was about to be taken away forever. Or at least until the death of another, which was such a horrible thing to pray for.

Feeling the agitation in her lover, the dark slayer moved up behind her, tense herself, wrapping arms tight around the blonde's middle.

"Faith...why can't you just lay off?"

The blonde slayer's eyes shifted their fire over towards Buffy's sister. But before she could say anything, Xander stepped in.

"That's enough, Dawn. For one thing, you're not going to get through to either of them now." He looked at the younger girl, holding her eyes. "For another, Faith saved Vanessa. End of story."

Though chastened, Dawn still couldn't resist a last word to the slayers, knowing she wouldn't be listened to. "You might wanna sit down for this...the books said the spell might have some kickback." Neither slayer moved. "Suit yourself..." She trailed off in a sing-song.

The Chosen One turned her eyes back to the younger slayers sitting clustered in the circle, to the witch who was assuming her seated position amidst the candles on the far edge. Willow's face was small and tight, the change from her normally open expression giving away her grief at doing this. Her voice, when it began, broke a little until she found the rhythm of the spell, losing herself in it rather than its consequences.

"Hear us! The circle we have made, the circle on this floor, is the circle of the earth, encompasses all of the earth, and all of us in it. All of those with the potential to be, who have been made to be, must now be instead as they were, waiting their turn in the manner of all things."

As she had begun to speak, all of the younger slayers had stiffened, feeling the energies in the air pulling at them. Responding to that power, the Chosen Ones stiffened themselves, straining at the ends of their chains, holding tight to each other. And it was as if the whole world was sending energy back into the room, incandescent and intangible. What Xander would later describe—to the rolled eyes of everyone but Giles, who merely looked confused—as being like the scene in _Ghostbusters_ where the ghosts are swirling in the sky.

One by one, the younger girls slumped down against each other where they sat, huddled.

And the slayers--the only remaining--crumpled to the floor in a heap.

Dawn looked over with a superior smile. "I totally told them they should sit down."

* * *

Buffy and Faith had been unchained, scooped up by Giles and Xander, respectively, and laid gently on the living room couches, where they were gradually coming to. Shaking their heads, they looked around to find all eyes on them, save Willow's, the redhead looking fixedly out the window.

Faith could feel the little sting of the scratches on her back from the night before as she shifted to sit up. Looking over at Buffy, she saw the bite fading on her neck, fading on her arms, and knew she was noticing as well, staring back at Faith, her face inscrutable, before Giles interrupted.

"How are you both feeling?" Buffy turned to him, pasting on a reassuring smile.

"Fine, Giles. No more crazy slayer chick for me. I'm now firmly in the camp of the sane." Faith merely nodded, watching as Buffy rose a little stiffly from the couch and went over to the redhead by the window, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks, Will." Her voice was quiet, but the other girl still winced at it, closing her eyes. Buffy's eyes sought out Giles' across the room, both knowing what this had cost the other girl. Tonight would cost her even more when Buffy and Faith would have to hunt down the vampire that was left of Willow's girlfriend.

With a brief glance towards Faith, she retreated upstairs to a much-deserved bath.

Xander watched Faith watch her go, then slap her hands on her thighs as she rose from the couch and wandered off to the kitchen, leaving a question for him.

"So, Xan-man, what'd we got to eat around here?"


	20. Chapter 20

Dawn found Buffy in front of the mirror in her bathroom, standing in panties and a bra, fresh from the bath. Her sister was staring at herself: the little fading marks on her neck and arms, the healing cut over her eyebrow, the thin, white scars of the cuts on her leg and shoulder. All from just a few days.

Picking up the comb from the counter, Dawn stood behind the shorter girl, running it down through the damp blonde strands. At the gentle raking across her scalp, her sister sighed and closed her eyes.

"I'm glad to have my sister back." Dawn spoke to the back of Buffy's head. "Not that, you know, it wasn't you all along, but I like this you better." She paused for a moment as Buffy smiled, continuing to comb out the tangles, feeling the water droplets sprinkle down with each run through. "Do you remember what it was like, being all slayer-riffic?"

Buffy leaned forward, resting her hands on the countertop, opening her eyes again to look back into her own in the mirror.

"Oh yes." She hadn't meant for it to come out quite that husky, quite that serious. But her sister quickly raised an eyebrow at her in the reflection.

"You gonna tell me what's the deal with you and Faith?"

"Geez, Dawn! One-track mind much?" Buffy turned around to face her, annoyed.

"Ok, I _so_ was not the only one going there!" Dawn shot back, a smug smile on her face as she saw her sister close her eyes for a moment and take a deep breath.

"Look, you're a teenager who grew up in Southern California...it's just not possible for you to be this bothered because she's a girl."

The younger Summers made a _whatever!_ face. "Um, no. Girls are objectively hotter than guys, and Faith's no exception, so I'm totally getting that part. There's just this little minor detail about it being Faith, who, I don't know, tried to kill you and tried to sleep with just about every boyfriend you ever had—not that they were real winners. _That_ I have a problem with." Laying the comb down on the countertop, she turned around to lean against the countertop next to her sister. When she spoke, her voice was quieter. "I just don't want you getting hurt by her—and she's got a lot of ways to do that to you."

Buffy sighed again, reaching out to grab her jeans and pull them on. "I know, I know. There's history and more history, a whole textbook of history, in fact." She pulled the halter top over her head. "But not all of that's her fault." She watched the water droplets still sliding down the porcelain edge of the tub. "This is gonna sound dumb, but...I think she can hurt me so much because there's some sort of connection between us. There always has been, and I don't know if it's the slayer thing or what. Just something."

"What're you going to do about it?"

"I don't know. I want..." The blonde blew out a long breath. "You know, can we talk about this later? I just feel like there's so much right now with needing to get a handle on Kennedy and deal with Willow. And I've got to get my hair dried before it gets all ugly and then go down to talk to Giles about tonight. Maybe later, okay?" She nudged the other girl's shoulder playfully and Dawn took the hint, leaving her to her reflection with one parting shot.

"Just please promise me that, if you guys get it on again, you lock your door or something because...ew."

Buffy turned on the hair dryer to hide her blush.

* * *

Hair dried and brushed safely into the realm of non-ugliness, Buffy passed Faith on her way down the stairs. The other girl was coming up, towel in hand, heading for Willow's bathroom.

"B." The dark slayer nodded her greeting.

"Are you, um, are you feeling, you know, okay, really?" The blonde gave her a slight smile, stammering a little as her head filled with the girl she had woken up to that morning, the way she'd looked with her head thrown back...

"You know me. 5 x 5." She arched an eyebrow at the discomfited blonde. "Why...you still feelin' it?"

_Depends on what you mean by "it." _The blonde tried to clamp down on her mind, putting her hands up. "No, no, I just...I thought I'd ask."

Faith allowed herself a half-smile at that. "Yeah, well..." She hooked at thumb in the direction of Willow's bathroom. "Gonna go grab a shower, get all clean and shit." And with that she forced herself to saunter off, not turning around to see the blonde watching her go.

Buffy reluctantly turned and made her way down into the kitchen, finding Willow and Xander crowded around the familiar dinner pizza box. Giles was making himself a sandwich. They all turned as she came in and pulled up a chair.

"How are the girls taking it?" She nodded towards the dorm, where most of them had retreated after the spell.

"Most are upset. It's a big adjustment, as I'm sure you can appreciate, Buffy." The blonde nodded absently at Giles, still looking over where those other slayers—now potentials—were. "There has been a lot of upheaval for many of them. They haven't known themselves to be slayers for very long, which is both a blessing and a curse for them. We will have to start making arrangements for them to go back to their families, if they wish to. And, of course, we will extend the invitation to them to stay if they would like, help Dawn and myself with research about the demons which will be inevitably drawn to the Hellmouth here."

Xander was chewing thoughtfully on a slice of pizza, also looking out at the dorm. "It's kinda weird, when you think about it. If they go, we may not see them again until you or Faith dies."

The blonde looked over at him. "Wow. Thanks for that cheery reminder of my mortality, Xander."

He immediately sputtered, "I didn't mean that we _want_ that, 'cause we definitely don't, I was just...I'll shut up now." He turned back to the slice he was working on and grabbed two more.

Giles turned the conversation to a still-more-unpleasant subject. "Do you feel up to going out this evening, Buffy?"

The blonde glanced quickly over at Willow, quick enough to see the look of pain there at the thought of Kennedy. Buffy reached over and grabbed her hand across the table. "Will, I don't think you should go for this. You shouldn't do that to yourself."

The redhead kept her eyes on the table, slowly nodding. Giles continued, "When will you two be going?"

His former slayer looked out the window, sighing a little, then bringing her eyes back to his. "It's just going to be me, Giles. I don't want Faith to go." Even as she said the words, she saw his eyes flick back to the space behind her, where, turning, she found Faith in the doorway, on her way to drop her towel in the washer. The dark slayer stared at her, face clouded, watching as Buffy left abruptly with a scrape of her chair out the slider into the backyard. Silently, Faith threw the balled up towel in the direction of the direction of the laundry and stormed back into the living room.

"Yikes." Xander spoke under his breath for all of them. "Our Buff: not the most perceptive of superheroes."

With a frown, Willow looked over to Giles. "If you take Faith, I'll take Buffy."

"Agreed."

* * *

Giles had a shorter distance to travel, finding Faith in the next room, furiously stuffing clothes and shoes back into the one duffel she'd brought with her.

"Faith, you can't go. We need you here." He kept his voice quiet, not wanting to anger her further.

"Gee, Giles. Think you might not a been payin' attention. B doesn't want me here. And I don't stay where I'm not wanted." Her voice was hard and familiar to him, sounding like the scared, bluffing young woman she was so many years ago when she'd first come to Sunnydale.

"We don't want that, and, frankly, I don't believe Buffy wants that either."

"Were you and me listenin' to a different blonde a minute ago? 'Cause I sure thought I heard her say somethin' else that sounded like a familiar refrain."

"Faith, she's confused. This has been a rough time for her—for you as well—and I think she just spoke rashly..."

"Yeah, well. No big. 'Sides, you might need someone to escort some a the kiddies home, and I could do that and wouldn't have to be in anyone's way." She pulled the zipper along the top, looking ready to walk out the door that moment, and Giles knew she very well might if he didn't stop her. So he pulled out the line he hated to use because he knew it was manipulative. She left him no choice.

"Faith, we need you here tonight. You can decide if you want to go tomorrow. But tonight, Kennedy must be taken care of and, even if she's no longer a slayer, she's still a vampire with far better training than most vampires. It could be dangerous for Buffy to go alone."

And, of course, it worked.

* * *

"So, are you trying to alienate her? Because I have to say, if that's your plan, you're doing a great job so far." Willow found the blonde slayer sitting on the end of one of the benches on the deck, her head in her hands.

"No! I'm just..." The redhead could see that she'd been crying as she lifted her head to protest. Her voice faltered, and she leaned back flat on the bench, looking up at the sky. "I don't know what I'm doing...I'm just being stupid."

"I didn't say that." She sat down next to her old friend, just beyond where her head was resting. "How do you feel about her?"

The blonde didn't answer for a moment, trying to find the words for the response inside herself. When she did speak, the answer was not direct. "When I was, you know, going all slayer and everything, it was like my whole world was narrowing to fighting...and Faith. I _needed_ both in a way I've never needed anything else before in my life. The thought of anything happening to her...I just...I don't know what I would've done. Killed something, probably." She turned red-rimmed eyes up to meet Willow's. "And that's scary, you know, to feel like that about someone." She looked back at the sky, then squeezed her eyes shut. "Ever since the spell, it's all still there inside me. I mean, I'm not gonna go all slayer-grrr again, but...the things we did, I still feel it." The blonde scooted back a little on the bench, resting her head on Willow's lap as the redhead ran fingers through her hair, trying to soothe the upset girl.

"Do you wish it hadn't happened?"

Buffy's eyes flew open. "No! I mean, sort of no. I maybe wish it hadn't happened that way, but I think I've always wanted this to happen. There's always been something, and seeing her when she got here, when it seemed like we might finally be far enough away from all that stuff in the past, and I thought maybe..." She sighed, closing her eyes again. "But then there was the whole slayer-taking-over thing, and I don't know." She paused for a moment, biting at her lip. "I've never done this sort of thing before and her, you know, she's the Do That girl. I'm afraid, maybe, she just wanted me 'cause I was like that...like I was when we, you know..."

Willow rolled her eyes. "I love you, Buffy, but sometimes you are absolutely dense." The blonde frowned.

"Will, if I slay with her tonight...well, let's just say, there's some truth to Faith's hungry and horny theory. I wanted this to be more than that."

"And while you're over here being all avoidance-girl, you're giving her exactly what she expects from you, which is the impression you only wanted her because you couldn't control yourself and that, once you regained your senses, you would have nothing to do with her."

Buffy sat up. "That's not true!"

"I know that, but she doesn't." She softened a little bit at the other girl's distress. "Buffy, you guys have to talk because Faith's, like, the Queen of Low Expectations and she'll find them even where you mean something else entirely."

Buffy sniffed at that. "Yeah. Faith and I are historically great at communicating complex emotions."

"Well, you're just going to have to get better."


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Thanks again for reading and your feedback!

* * *

Unfortunately, looking for Kennedy turned out not to be the best time for said share-fest, as both slayers walked, tense and alert, through the dark Cleveland streets.

Well, that and a certain blonde slayer wasn't really jumping at the prospect of in-depth conversation with the surly girl next to her, who had already made it abundantly clear she was there for one night only, one purpose only, as a favor to Giles. Try as she might to think of a good reason to offer to the other girl to stay, Buffy couldn't imagine one that wouldn't lead to some sarcastic retort that would make her want to smack the other girl. Or back her up into a tree and kiss the hell out of her. She wasn't sure which. And that also kept Buffy's eyes straight ahead and her mouth shut.

The brunette at her side, for her part, was firmly of the opinion that the ball was in Buffy's court. So far in her court it might as well be in her locker room. Because Faith had tried that. She'd tried it long ago with Buffy and got nothing but a big wad of frustration for her trouble. She'd tried her luck when she came to Cleveland—okay, pushed her luck—only to see the blonde strain to resist her over and over until she finally couldn't and she came to her with those eyes, that mouth, the feel of her skin... Faith kept a steely look planted firmly on her face, telling herself this was all about saving Buffy's cute little ass and then getting out of dodge. Fully on the other side of the planet of dodge, where the blonde couldn't follow her.

It wasn't surprising that Kennedy startled both of them out of their thoughts, appearing, casually leaning against a gravestone, not ten feet in front of them.

"Well, since you two aren't groping each other, I'm guessing that Will helped you get your slayers under control again."

Both girls snapped guiltily to attention, dropping into attack stances, stakes at the ready.

"And where is Will, by the way?" The question was meant to sound casual, but Buffy thought Kennedy's face looked, for a moment, earnest and young. Like the young slayer she knew. She cocked her head, then saw the vampire slide back into an easy sneer as the dark slayer chimed in.

"She stayed home. B's already been there and done the undead twice, so she could see what a great idea that wouldn't be."

The older slayer whipped around to scowl at her counterpart, grumbling. "Both of whom you tried to sleep with yourself, I might add." The brunette arched an eyebrow in return, interrupted as the vampire hopped down off her perch, curling her lip at Buffy.

"Oh, I don't know, Faith...I tend to agree that the blonde does get around."

"For crying out loud! Get off it, will you! One almost-kiss does not make me Buffy the Vampire Slut! Will knows what happened, Kennedy...it was nobody's fault." The blonde sunk a little further into her fighting stance as the brunette started towards her. "Course, now that you're all vampy, this is all sort of a moot point."

Kennedy stared at her for a moment, face shadowed and unreadable. When she spoke again it was almost wistful. "I really do wish Willow had come." Wistful cracked into an unpleasant smile. "Now I'm just going to have to send her a message...and we all know how the game of telephone goes."

"Yeah, it goes something like you start whisperin' in my ear and I take you back in a fuckin' dustbuster." The dark slayer tensed further, unnerved by the other woman's seeming nonchalance as she began to saunter towards them. Faith spared a glance for Buffy, who caught it, and understood it, and began to move into position on the other side of Kennedy, so that they could pounce at once.

But before they got a chance to, the vampire lashed out suddenly in a roundhouse kick that caught the blonde slayer square in the chest, sending her stumbling back, her stake skittering away on the ground. Faith moved in quickly, only to be struck herself as Kennedy spun with a backhand, followed almost instantly by a hooking left punch to the jaw that nearly knocked her flat.

"Shit!" She shook her head slightly to clear it, then leapt out to catch at the other girl, who turned enough that she only caught the side of her arm. And then used that arm and Faith's own momentum to fling her off, right into the incoming blonde slayer, sending both of them crashing to the ground in an ungainly heap.

"Gonna go with a big fat no on the loss of slayer strength." Faith grunted to the blonde, rolling off and out of the way just as a tree limb as thick as her arm came whistling down where she'd been, missing Buffy's head and wide eyes by only a matter of inches. The slayers split in different directions, circling back to place Kennedy between them, idly twirling the limb as she watched the two girls wait for their opening.

"You guys are a little less fun now that you're not all growly." Kennedy stuck out her lower lip a little, then narrowed her eyes at the blonde, who had taken her eyes off Kennedy long enough to seek out the dark slayer. "Bet Faith misses that about you, Buffy. She is a girl with needs, you know...not sure Miss Tight Ass is gonna cut it." She could see she'd guessed right as the blonde grimaced slightly before she set her face and launched her attack, leaving a startled Faith to catch up to her a second later as they both tried to pin Kennedy between them.

Only to find her dance out from in between, swinging the heavy limb around her so that both slayers had to take evasive action to avoid being struck. Buffy dove and rolled right into the side of Kennedy's knee, knocking the other girl to the ground. The blonde moved quickly to pin her, getting in several punches to her face before the other girl could reach through to grab her neck and toss her aside. Faith dove in, driving the stake down into what would have been Kennedy's heart a moment earlier, but which was now the side of her arm. Kennedy howled, rolling to her feet, her face shifting abruptly to that of the demon within. Sensing weakness, Buffy pressed forward, feeling her slayer within when she needed it, pushing the other girl back on the defensive, into the wall of a crypt, only to feel the numbing pain shoot through her hand as the vampire ducked at the last moment and her punch found solid granite.

"Mother—!"

Sucking in her breath, feeling the broken fingers dangling, she was still there when the other girl's side kick caught her in the side, and sent her flying to land awkwardly, bent back across a gravestone, pain shooting from the ribs she'd been nursing back to health.

"B?" She heard the dark slayer's words, muffled by the attack she was launching, as the blonde slayer looked up, shaken, to see Faith fighting like a force of nature. The brunette spared a glance for Buffy, who waved her away as she struggled to rise, and returned to hammer in on Kennedy's wounded shoulder, backing the other girl snarling under a tree.

And then Buffy could see it before it happened. It was a move she would have done herself. Probably had. When sparring with Kennedy. Reaching, the vampire grabbed the branch above her, flipping up, catching Faith with a brutal double kick that sent her head snapping back, felling her like a tree as the Kennedy spun up and around, landing with a foot on each side of the downed slayer.

Buffy scrambled up, running, her mouth shaping her cry, seeing Kennedy grab Faith by the shirt and pull her up off the ground, bringing her mouth to that same wound she'd made before. She sped towards the vampire and her unconscious prey, seeing the blood trickling down around her teeth, and then Kennedy's face, suddenly blank and human, pulling away, letting Faith fall. Until Buffy was almost there and Kennedy saw the furious blonde out of the corner of her eye, grabbing her just in time to avoid the stake and swing the slayer around head-first into a tree.

The oldest slayer slid down to the grass, motionless, next to the other still slayer already there.

* * *

"They should be right through there, Giles!" Willow looked up from her locator spell, face drawn.

"I see them! Stop the car!" Dawn sang out from the back seat as the car swung to the curb, and everyone piled out at once. Dawn and Willow ran headlong to the two girls lying just 20 feet inside the cemetery fence, while Giles and Xander followed, spinning around, pointing their crossbows at the night.

Both girls reached quickly for the slayers' pulses and, finding them, nodded, relieved, at Giles and Xander's worried looks. Dawn nearly collapsed, crying, on Buffy, cradling her older sister, wiping at the dried blood caked on her forehead. Willow's eyes widened at the wound opened fresh again in Faith's neck, the paleness of her skin.

"We have to get them home." The redhead's voice was hoarse as Giles and Xander scooped up a slayer each, handing off their crossbows to the girls. Dawn's eyes flickered between the quiet cemetery and her limp sister, backing her way towards the car as Willow scanned the night one last time, then followed.

* * *

Buffy screamed, coming awake as Giles pulled at her fingers to set the broken bones there. It took Dawn, Xander, and Giles to hold her down. Faith stirred on the bed next to her, not coming completely awake, her breathing still shallow. Willow leaned quickly over both, placing a hand on their foreheads, murmuring under her breath as she magicked them into sleep and both relaxed. Dawn stayed at her sister's side as Xander and Giles moved over to the window to talk softly with Willow.

"Thank god you found them, Will!" As Xander spoke, Giles watched the witch's face in the moonlight streaming in.

"You were tracking them, weren't you?" His voice was gentle.

"Yeah." She shot him a sheepish look. "Giles, I had to know!" A breath. "I had to know what was happening, so I did a spell. I could see little pinpricks of light for each of them. I could see them fighting..." She paused, swallowing. "And then I could see both lights stop moving. And I knew something had to be wrong." She glanced over at the sleeping, battered girls laid out on Buffy's bed, then back at Giles. "They should be dead."

"Thankfully, you knew quickly enough to get us there in time."

"Yeah, Will...it all worked out." Xander chimed in, concerned that his old friend was growing increasingly anxious.

"No, you don't get it, Giles! They still should have been dead." She needed the Englishman to understand. "However fast we could have gotten there, Kennedy...any vampire should have been able to kill them both before then!"

"Okay, Will's got a point there, G-man." The young man turned to Giles, hoping for an explanation. "Two tasty slayers laid out like that should've been an all-you-can-eat buffet of the undead variety. But nobody came to dinner."

Giles looked over at his sleeping charges, two girls who nearly hadn't made it home. Once again. "It looks like Kennedy—or someone—may have tried with Faith. She's lost some blood, but not so much that her body can't repair itself." He glanced back at Willow, her eyes on those same slayers. "I can't explain why it wasn't worse. We'll just have to wait until they wake and can tell us more." He sighed. "In the meantime, we should let them rest and heal." Gently, he herded all of them, even the reluctant Dawn, from the room.

* * *

It was some hours before Buffy stirred, venturing one eye open, then shutting it as she felt the horrendous headache settle in. Her bedroom. How had she ended up here? Was she alive? Quick inventory of appendages...all seemed in working order. Feeling pressure against her left shoulder, she raised up slightly to look down. Faith. Faith sleeping next to her, pressing her forehead into Buffy's arm, twin jets of breath hot on her skin as she slept. The bandage on her neck. Oh god! Faith! She wanted to reach over and touch the girl who looked so small, curled next to her. A weight on her arm kept it there. Faith's hand on her arm, two fingers resting over the pulse in her wrist.


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Thanks again for reading! I will be on a short vacation, so this will not be updated until early next week. Thanks for your patience—I've tried to give you a slightly longer chapter here to tide you over. I'd love to hear what you think!

* * *

Buffy stayed there as long as she could, enjoying the quiet reassurance of Faith's breathing, the tiny tremors in the fingertips on her wrist, the security of healing in the bandage on Faith's neck, almost as pale as her skin. She stayed as long as she could until the throbbing of her head and the pain in her ribs and fingers forced her up, stiffly, into the bathroom in search of aspirin.

_God, I look awful! Better to keep the light off._ But, even in the dark, she could make out the raised dark brown of the bruise on her forehead, this time over the other eye. Well, at least she would be symmetrical. With one hand, she fought against the child-proof cap on the aspirin bottle—not easy, mind you!—shaking out one or four and tossing them into her mouth. She pulled up the edge of her somewhat worse-for-the-wear halter top, wincing, inspecting the damage to her ribs.

"B?"

Buffy's head snapped up at the husky voice calling to her. "Faith? Are you—?" She stopped as the girl appeared, folding her arms across her chest, leaning against the doorframe. The moonlight from the other room made her look even whiter, more porcelain in the gloom.

"Just seein' where you hightailed it to." She frowned a little at the pill bottle on the counter, her eyes quickly assessing the bruised forehead and splinted fingers. "Whatcha doin' in the dark...forgot to pay your bill?"

"Nope. Head hurts. Lights bad." The blonde lowered her shirt, furrowing her brow a little as she looked at Faith. Quieter this time: "Are you okay? When I saw you go down, and then she was at your neck before I could—"

"So that explains the big hicky I got." Faith's hand reached up to brush across the bandage. "Thought maybe the fight worked you up like it worked me up." And then she made the mistake of trying to make good on the sly smile in her eyes, the answering dilation she could pick out in Buffy's. At the second step she faltered and would have gone down if the older slayer hadn't jumped to catch her. The concern in the blonde's eyes warred with the desire there, the other girl's now-familiar body so close...but concern won out for the moment as she saw the other slayer's lips go a shade paler, saw the shadows around her eyes.

"You lost a lot of blood. You shouldn't be up like this." She brushed aside the other girl's attempts to shoo her away. "Oh, quit trying to be such a hard-ass...I've got you. Let's get you back to bed."

"Stairs seem like a bad idea, B." The dark slayer steadied herself against the other girl as they made their way out of the bathroom.

"My bed." At Buffy's words, Faith raised an eyebrow, then carefully pitched her voice down into the whiskey-for-breakfast range, watching the slight quiver in the other girl as she spoke.

"Careful, B. Don't go makin' promises you don't intend to keep." As the blonde slayer eased her down to sit on the edge of the bed, Faith held on to the older woman's arm, leaning back to lie down, bringing Buffy with her, on top of her.

The blonde made a half-hearted attempt to extricate herself, the images in her head reminding her just exactly what she was trying to get away from. "Faith, listen..." Reminding her just exactly how much she didn't want to get away. Faith's hands started roaming. "I want to talk first and, anyway, you're not feeling—."

"I'll let you know when I'm not feelin' it." The dark slayer traced the other girl's collarbone with a fingertip, up her neck, along her jaw line, feeling the muscles clenching there. "And you and I aren't so good with the words."

"I know but...wait..." Faith could see her breath quickening as she trailed her finger down the blonde's throat, down her chest, resting it at the "v" of her top, then sideways, along the rising curve of her breast.

"I don't think you want me to wait." Faith's kept her voice in the register that was driving Buffy wild, watching the conflict on her face closely, silently in the dark.

"No. I mean, yes! I mean, I'm trying to tell you something here!" Buffy's sentences came out in bursts of short breaths, trying to stay focused.

"All ears." The first part of Faith's sentence was muffled as she reached to lift the hem of Buffy's shirt, and, careful of her ribs, wound her hand around the back of the smaller girl to unhook her bra. The blonde sighed a little as it came free.

"Stop being so difficult!" The blonde tried to pout, but it came out as more of a gasp as the brunette raised the top to place a light kiss on her uninjured ribs, moving upwards.

"Me? I'm not the one talkin' when there's better things to do." And then Buffy could do no more than agree as Faith took her nipple between her lips. Ripping her top and bra over her head, she leaned into Faith's mouth, groaning at the sensation and the sensations she remembered.

Faith let her eyes indulge in that skin, let the slayer still within her be reminded of it. With her hands and lips she pushed all of the buttons she knew would make Buffy lose control. One corner of her mouth turned up as she felt the blonde's hands, rushed and clumsy, reaching to remove her shirt, grasping at her skin, her head bending in to kiss her hungrily, that silken hair once again making a curtain around them. She saw Buffy's eyes shut in ecstasy as Faith pulled down the zipper of her jeans, heard her moan as she reached in to touch her, the catch in her throat as she slid two fingers inside her so easily. She watched the perfection of her moving in time with Faith's rhythm, her small cries as she fumbled for the button of Faith's jeans, the way she bit her bottom lip as she slid her own fingers inside of Faith.

And then Faith shut her own eyes, unable to watch anymore, only feel.

* * *

Lying next to her, Buffy could hear Faith's breathing, still as heavy as her own in the darkness of the early morning. Idly, her fingers started to trace little shapes on the younger slayer's arm. She moved to turn and look up at her, only to feel the other girl rise from the bed, pad into the bathroom, and shut the door behind her.

_Why can't anything ever be easy? Just once._

Wincing a bit as she stood, she wavered a moment then grabbed an old t-shirt, slipped it over her head, and went to knock at the door. There were sounds of a shower within. Hearing no answer, she turned the knob and entered, feeling the rising steam against her skin. She tried to keep it light.

"Kinda makes a girl self-conscious when you do a bee-line for the shower afterwards, Faith." She saw the brunette moving behind the clouded glass, a blurry naked shape under the stream.

"Nothin' personal." Buffy sighed at the careful distance in that voice, frowning a little as she caught herself wondering how many other men and women had heard that same tone.

Sitting on the edge of the countertop, Buffy addressed herself to the fuzzy form behind the glass. "Faith, I think we should talk about what this is."

"I know what it is."

"Well, you're doing better than me then!" Buffy paused, reminding herself not to let the other girl's flippancy get to her. Reminding herself about all of Faith's tricks and that they were just that. She went on more quietly. "But I'd like to know more about this. I'd like to talk about it. Really talk this time." She could see the shape of Faith looking at her.

"S'matter, B? You didn't like the way we talked about it a minute ago?"

Count to ten. "I did. God did I. But, Faith, you know what—"

The brunette had turned her face under the spray again. "Yeah. I don't wanna toot my horn, but it seemed like you were likin' it well enough."

Buffy gingerly let herself down from her perch and moved over to stand right up against the glass. "Let me finish. You know what I mean. I just...I want to know what this means to you, why you...with me..." She trailed off, wishing for about the four millionth time that she knew how to talk to the other girl. Leaning her forehead on the glass, she placed her palm flat against it, eyes closed, knowing the other slayer was watching her. "I want to figure this out."

Hearing only the water, she looked up again, seeing the blurred outline of a hand against hers before it was pulled back from the glass.

"Got it, B." As Faith turned to work the shampoo out of her hair, Buffy could see it wasn't going to be right now. Sighing, she trailed her finger along the glass as she made her way to the door.

"Soon, Faith. Promise me." Hearing no response, she left the steam-filled room and returned to the bed, its rumpled covers. Feeling the exhaustion overtake her and the slayer in her telling her she still needed time to heal, she found herself soon fast asleep.

* * *

At a decent waking hour, Willow knocked softly on Buffy's door. Hearing and expecting no answer, she slowly opened it and looked in. Her old friend lay on her good side, curled in what Willow noted were not the same clothes they'd left her in the night before. She could hear her soft breathing. She couldn't see Faith.

Closing the door quietly, she made her way downstairs, rolling her eyes as she passed Faith asleep on the couch, hair still a little damp, and also in different clothes. In the kitchen, she found Giles, already up and reading a book that looked as though it would fall apart if you looked at it cross-eyed. He raised his mug to her as she passed to get coffee. As she returned to sit next to him, he could see her eyes were bloodshot.

"I can see you didn't get much sleep."

She shook her head, watching the oils on the top of the coffee swirl as she stirred in her cream. "I've been trying and I just don't understand it, Giles. If Kennedy's just a vampire, why wouldn't she have killed them? She had the chance and that's got to be, like, several gold stars in the vampire world." She sighed, nodding at his book. "Did you find anything?"

He laid his glasses on the table, pinching at the bridge of his nose. "No. I'm afraid not. But then, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. Perhaps we'll know better when Buffy and Faith wake up."

"Speaking of..." She flicked her eyes significantly in the direction of the other room.

"Yes, I know. I saw." He sighed, looking there himself, then back down into his tea. "I just hope we're able to convince Faith to stay. We clearly need all the slayer strength we can get at the moment, considering the state both of them came home in last night."

"And they need each other, even if they're too unbelievably stubborn to admit it."

"They are both very complicated young women, Willow."

"They make things complicated."

"That may be..." He smiled suddenly. "Ah, Faith...how are you feeling?"

It wasn't clear how long she'd been standing there, still pale in the morning light. "A'ight. Any coffee left?"

Willow nodded and the slayer walked a little unsteadily to grab a cup for herself. Giles continued: "Can you tell us anything about last night? When Willow led us to you, both of you were already unconscious." The brunette looked up at him, then looked in the direction of the second floor, knitting her brows, before turning back to her coffee.

"Usual, big fight." She took a sip. "Oh, yeah, I guess there is one thing. Your girl still packs one hell of a punch, Red."

"She what?"

"I mean, she hits like a slayer." The brunette rubbed her jaw a little. "Or maybe even a little harder. Anyway, she's pretty fuckin' strong."

"Giles, what...? How?" At the redhead's questions, the watcher's puzzled expression mirrored her own.

"I don't understand any more than you, Willow. When we did that spell yesterday, it should have taken her back to just being a potential, just like the other girls. If it didn't..." He trailed off as Willow jumped from her seat, rushing towards the other room, only to collide full force with the blonde slayer just coming through the door. With a cry, Buffy stumbled back against her sister behind her, grabbing at her wounded side, holding her splinted fingers protectively to her chest.

"Red, look—" "Buffy, are you—?" "Watch it!" Faith's, Giles', and Dawn's voices all came at once. The redhead stopped, eyes wide.

"Oh my god, did I hurt you? I wasn't looking where I was going, I should have looked, I'm so sorry...are you hurt?" The words came in a rush as her hands hovered over Buffy, unsure whether to touch or not touch.

"S'okay. Just a tad on the fragile side." The blonde squeezed the redhead's arm.

"Oh good! I've got to...Faith just told me Ken might still be a slayer and I was just going to look... Did she hurt you? Follow me into the living room, I want to ask you some things."

The blonde tried to follow her friend's racing mind. "Did who hurt me? Kennedy?"

"Yeah, is she still a slayer? Did she hit like one? How did she sound?" Willow threw the questions behind her as she moved into the living room towards the computer.

"Just a minute, Will. Let me grab some coffee and I'll be right there." The blonde answered the retreating back, squeezing Dawn's hand to let her know she was okay. As she passed Faith on the way to the coffee pot, the brunette grabbed her good hand and wrapped two aspirin in it. Buffy mouthed her thanks as Faith nodded and then followed Willow.

Coffee in hand, Buffy entered the living room, where everyone was now gathered. Willow already had several windows open on the computer screen. Noticing Faith slouched at one end of one of the couches, Buffy curled at the other end of the same. She spread out the blanket—the same she supposed Faith had used this morning, when she'd never come back to bed—over her legs and turned to Willow.

"So you guys say she seemed strong still." Both slayers nodded. "Is there anything else you can tell me about what she was like?"

"Nope, just heckuva punch. Don't remember much at the end, just her feet comin' at my face. Guess I must've gone down then." She glanced over at the blonde slayer who was watching her, face clouded.

"I tried to get to you." Buffy closed her eyes, and, opening them again, turned to Willow and Giles. "I tried to get to Faith, but Kennedy had just kicked me back over a grave and I could feel my fingers were broken, and I couldn't get there fast enough. She was...she bit...I could see her bite into Faith's neck, right where she'd done it before."

"Can you tell us what you saw, Buffy?" Giles' voice was gentle in the face of the blonde's troubling memories.

Buffy moved her foot under the blanket to rest it, tentatively, against Faith's leg. "I saw her fangs slide in. And there was blood. And Faith was...I could see she was limp, and I knew I had to get there." Her brow furrowed. "And, you know, it was kinda weird, but she stopped."

"Who stopped? Ken?" Willow's voice cut in.

"Yeah. Right before I got there. She pulled back and it was like her face went back to normal for a minute." She struggled to remember. "I think it was just for a second. Then, I...well, I don't know, everything went blank, so I guess that's when she must've knocked me out." Buffy suddenly sat upright, grabbing on to Faith's arm where it rested on the back of the couch. "Oh my god! We were there alone! We were unconscious!" She looked over at the dark slayer, a horrified expression on her face. "Why didn't she kill us? Or some other vampire? God! I couldn't protect..."

Giles' words took her focus off of Faith, whose eyes she had been holding. "We don't know, Buffy. That's what we're trying to find out. And I think you two—" He paused, looking over at Faith. "You are planning on staying, Faith?"

Faith found Buffy watching her intently, her hand still warm on her arm, foot still against her leg. "B's call."

The blonde made sure Faith was looking at her before she answered. "Please stay. I want you to."

Faith nodded back to Giles, not looking back at Buffy, but instead out the window.

Giles went on. "I think you two should plan on not going out this evening." Seeing that both were about to protest, he raised a hand. "No, it's clear that you both need to heal further and aren't in any shape to take Kennedy on. And, indeed, we need to do some research to learn what it is that we're dealing with, and whether there might be some way to get Kennedy back."

Willow's hands were already flying furiously across the keyboard.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Reviews are better than most things in life, with the exception of really fresh Cheetos. And see how easy I make it: reviews are much nicer to transmit!

* * *

Faith tried. She really did. But hours of researching and musty books and nobody knowing exactly what they were looking for was just not her thing. Glancing over, she found that the other slayer shared her sentiments. Or would have, had she been awake.

Buffy had a book open on her lap, but her cheek was resting against the back of the couch, her eyes closed, her mouth slightly open. Underneath the blanket, her foot still pressed, warm, against Faith's thigh. In a muted "screw this" gesture, the brunette slayer flipped closed the book she had been assigned and eased herself away from the blonde's touch, seeing the girl react by pulling her leg in tight against her body, shifting a little in sleep.

Giles looked over at the dark slayer quizzically as she stood, then nodded as she pantomimed boxing for him and trotted out the slider to the backyard.

In the training room, things were simple. You hit the punching bag and it gives a satisfying thwack and rocks a little on its chain. No confusing vampire-comma-slayers that you're not sure if you're supposed to kill or save, no books with pages filled with words in some dead language nobody knows, no blonde slayers.

Thwack!

Buffy had asked her to stay.

Thwack!

Had she agreed? She could hardly remember saying anything. Just the feeling of those green eyes on her because, you know, Buffy was always watching her. Waiting for her to get up and leave. Waiting for her to screw everything up. Which was probably a smart move on Buffy's part. But this morning when the blonde slayer had leaned against the shower door, her hand spread out on the glass, Faith had caught herself spreading out her own hand to meet it, thinking, maybe, just for a moment, maybe.

Which was stupid, really. And she always fell for it. What is it they say about people who keep making the same mistakes over and over?

"Faith?" The brunette looked up, realizing she was just holding the punching bag, pressing her forehead into it much as Buffy had when she was all bad ass just a few days ago. Just a few days?

"Faith?"

"Yeah, Xan-man. What's up? Find the cure for what ails Ken?" She resumed her routine with a left hook.

"Nah. The path of research is a slow and thankless one. Giles and Will are running on the theory that the two parts of Kennedy are fighting with each other, but they haven't showed me how to look that up in any index, so I'm flying blind in there. Or at least one-eyed." He smiled over at her, then scuffed his shoe a little against the edge of the mat, clearing his throat.

"A'ight." She stopped her jabs and turned to look at him. "Spit it out."

He looked up at her a little sheepishly, and she fought to keep her face clear of the memories of how she'd hurt him once. How she'd used him in her tailspin...maybe used him to get at Buffy. That's it...keep the face blank and open and receptive. Moving on and all that shit.

"I just, um, wanted to come in here and thank you, Faith, for saving Vanessa." Seeing her open her mouth, he put up his hand for her to let him continue. "No, I know you're not asking for it, but I'm giving it, and my apologies for being rude when you first got here. I just...I let the past get the better of me, and I shouldn't have."

"S'all good. Slayer chick's good at savin' the day."

"You know, it's not just your slayer, Faith. You'd have done the same even if..."

"Even if supergirl hadn't been runnin' the show?" The dark slayer finished his sentence.

He nodded. "Yeah. I mean, watching you and Buff take a big bite of the slayer apple was strange to say the least, but the instincts inside you guys are pretty cool if you think about it: fighting the bad guys, protecting the good guys..." He noticed her amused eyebrow. "And, being a boy, I'll admit that imagining some hot girl-on-girl action wasn't that bad either."

Faith smirked at the confirmation of her suspicions. "Bet your girl's glad that little fantasy's over for you."

The young man copped a theatrical hand to the forehead, feigning a sigh. "Alas, alack." But as the dark slayer turned back to her punching bag, he sobered and looked at her. "You know it's not over for her, right?"

Thwack!

He continued. "She wants you to stay."

"So she says." Another hook, a right one this time. She couldn't stop herself from going on. "Yeah, maybe she's still feelin' it and will be till she's got bad girl outta her system or till some military beefcake or broody vamp comes along with the Big Love and then she ain't feelin' it anymore."

Xander paused thinking that that might possibly have been the longest sentence he'd heard her say in a while and certainly the most introspective.

"You love her, don't you?" He didn't get a response and wasn't naïve enough to expect one, so he went on more quietly. "It's not just about sex for Buffy. She doesn't work that way. If she wants you to stay, it's more than that."

"Yeah, well...I don't do 'more' really."

"I know, I know...you like your get-some-get-gone rep." He did know. She winced a little at that. Yet another mistake she was trying to live down. "Just...be careful with Buffy with that. Angel was her first and he went all post-coital murder spree on her, and then there was Spike, which was sort of bad before it was good, if it was. Sex hasn't been so good to the old Chosen One."

"Not what her actions been sayin'."

"Is that her talking, or you?"

"When'd you get all perceptive and shit?"

"Think I traded an eye for it." He smiled at her, knowing she'd shifted the conversation and respecting that, reluctantly returning to the research that beckoned as she resumed her workout.

* * *

"Okay, maybe I'm just being dense here, Giles, but I thought when you become a vampire you, you know, lose your soul. Thus, my guilt-free slaying. Not to mention a whole lot of drama regarding a former boyfriend." Faith heard the blonde slayer's voice as soon as she walked in the kitchen and was greeted by green eyes that turned to seek her out, smiling at her before turning back to the conversation. Faith grabbed a towel from the linen closet, then made her way into the living room, seeing Buffy move her feet from where they were stretched out to give the dark slayer room to sit. She did not sit, catching those green eyes again as she headed upstairs to the shower.

Giles was answering the blonde slayer. "Generally speaking, Buffy, you are correct. And I can't really explain the discrepancy here except to say that it may have had something to do with the fluctuations going on with the slayer's essence at the time of her turning."

Willow leapt in. "Whatever it is, Buffy, she's not acting like a vampire without a soul."

"Okay, I think you're failing to remember a few bites in the neck region that seemed pretty vampiric to me." Her eyes softened as she saw the excitement of hope on the other girl's face. "Look, Will, I really hope there's some way this can work out. But she's tried to kill me and Faith several times—and nearly succeeded—" She broke off, her face clouded as she glanced in the direction of the running water upstairs before continuing. "—and she tried to kill Vanessa. I hate to say it, but that all sounds like pretty standard vamp turf to me."

"Yeah, Buffy, but you said yourself that her face switched back while she was biting Faith and she stopped, and, oh, then there was also when Faith went out to rescue Vanessa and you weren't there because you were...well, anyway, she bit Faith that time, too, but got this really horrified look on her face when I knocked her away...and her face switched that time, too!" The redhead was pacing now, gesticulating wildly in the air. Buffy could feel the energy swirling around her, responding to her.

"And she didn't kill you, either. You or Faith." Dawn spoke up from next to her stack of books.

"Quite right, Dawn, we mustn't forget that she had the opportunity and few vampires would have been able to resist that, especially being as young as Kennedy is comparatively." Giles looked thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose it is even possible that she was responsible for keeping other vampires away from you and Faith in your vulnerable state."

"That's right! I bet she did! Just like you remember she said she staked the vampires that turned her. It's like she's still a slayer, still protecting slayers!" Willow practically bounced over to the window, watching the afternoon fade into evening, as if she could see Kennedy out there somewhere.

Buffy sighed. "I hope you're right, Will. I just don't want to face her again and risk her getting her hands on one of us and deciding that her idea of protection includes the kind where somebody dies." Her eyes shifted over to meet those of the dark slayer as she came down the stairs with her wet towel, hair still damp. In the background, she was aware that Giles was proposing they continue their research, but watched instead as Faith sauntered back into the room. Once again, she moved her legs to make room, a question in her eyes. Faith answered by flopping down at the end away from Buffy, propping her boots heavily on the coffee table, picking up a large book from the stack on the floor, and diving in with an unaccustomed focus.

After a moment, Buffy did the same.

* * *

As the night wore on, not even the fortification of pizza and sugary donuts could stifle Xander's yawns. Buffy would have sworn that Faith had been napping periodically, but every time she looked up, the brunette turned a page. Even Giles and Dawn were doing a lot of blinking and rereading the same pages. Only Willow was still wired and vivid in the light of her computer screen.

Faith looked over as Buffy stretched herself into a yawn in the soft lamp light. By the time her eyes had taken in the delicate extended dance of her fingertips in the air, the blonde hair tucked behind one ear, the line of her neck, she realized the other girl was regarding her from the other end of the couch, head cocked just slightly.

"I was thinking of, you know, going to bed and I know the couch is probably pretty uncomfortable down here, so, if you want, you're welcome to come stay with me tonight, but you don't have to, it's just that couches are lumpy and my bed isn't." A pin could have dropped in the room, but Giles, Dawn, Xander, and Willow were all careful to keep their eyes fixed firmly on whatever book they had out and ignore the horrendous runon that was Buffy's invitation to Faith. The dark slayer, for her part, glanced around nervously before sliding a familiar horny grin over her features.

"Gee whiz, B, in front of the kiddies and everything! Would've thought you got your post-slay fix in this morning, but far be it from me to deny..." She turned a what-can-you-do face to the others and made to get off the couch.

Only to be beat to the punch by the other girl, who shot her a hurt look that she quickly transformed into a "Whatever! Stay here then." as she stomped upstairs.

Faith turned to look at her retreating form, then turned back around to find four pairs of eyes staring.

"Um, Faith, were you not listening earlier?" Xander said, shaking his head. Willow just rolled her eyes.

She sputtered back. "Jesus! It was just a joke..." They all just kept on staring. "Ok, fine." She hauled herself up and followed after the blonde.

* * *

She found her in the window seat, staring out into the night. Faith decided to swagger in.

"B, you've really got to learn how to find the fun here cause between you and all the long faces downstairs..."

Buffy didn't turn, but spoke instead to the window. "When you were all slayer-y, what was it like? For you?"

The question took the dark slayer off guard. She sat down on the edge of Buffy's bed. "I dunno. Fighting, sex...you know, same as you, I guess."

"And now?"

"Well, it's different..." She tried a sexy smile out on the blonde. "No, wait...no, it's not. Still fighting and sex, just maybe a little less bondage and biting." Buffy rose from her seat to come over and stand in front of Faith.

"I remember that." A small smile. "Couldn't forget." Green eyes met hers. "But I also remember needing you, fighting for you, trying to pull a fucking chain out of a wall to get to you."

"Careful, B. Or we're gonna have to wash that mouth out." But Faith's expression was serious under the eyes watching her, serious in the face of that quiet voice coming from only about a foot away. Right next to her.

"Faith, it hasn't gone away. I still feel like that." She stepped even closer, into Faith's space. "So, I need to know if it was just fighting and sex for you, 'cause I think you're lying."

A thousand cocky responses, a thousand ways to remind herself this was not what it sounded like. A thousand of the goddamn things and not one of them would stick on her tongue with Buffy standing right there. So close. The only thing that would come out amounted to a hoarse plea.

"B, it won't work. It never works."

Buffy nodded, not listening to the words, just reading her face, her eyes. "I thought so." And then she closed the gap, and Faith could only sigh as the older slayer gently cupped her chin in both hands, leaning in to brush her soft lips against Faith's, pulling away to rest her forehead against the younger slayer's, their eyes closed together.

And even while she couldn't breathe and couldn't think with the chant of _please_ running over and over through her head, Faith reached out with hands familiar enough with Buffy's body to bring out that hitch in her breath. Only to have those hands gathered up in one of Buffy's and pinned over her head as the blonde guided her down onto the bed.

Faith couldn't resist an eyebrow at that. "Never knew you were such a top, B."

That earned a slow, sexy smile from the other girl. "I am when I know what I want. And this is about you." Her eyes still held Faith's, held Faith to the bed to watch Buffy this time as she rose to stand next to her, slowly working the buttons of her shirt through their holes, peeling back the shirt and letting it fall, undoing the clasp of her bra and letting it fall, sliding the zipper down and letting her jeans fall. Stepping out of them, she hooked her thumbs beneath the band of her panties and gave them to the floor as well to stand naked and perfect before Faith in the lamp light.

"There's only one thing..." A slight tremor in her voice, a slight narrowing in Faith's eyes, waiting for the other shoe. "Just...please be here in the morning."

It was a request even Faith couldn't talk herself into denying.


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews and virtual Cheetos! I've tried to express my gratitude with a fairly quick update. Sorry it's a wee bit shorter than usual—just seemed like a good stopping place (and by "good" I mean there was a cliff from which I could hang). And now it just remains to be seen who gets the lucky 100th review spot.

* * *

Buffy came to Faith where she still lay flat on the bed, hands above her head. Buffy came to her, laying her body flush on top so that the dark slayer could feel the pressure of her clothes keeping her from that skin, feel the warmth seeping through them where Buffy pressed her hips. Buffy came to her, hands on either side of Faith's face, propping up to look at Faith, then bending in to kiss her, soft kisses that caught her lips until Faith could have done that alone all day and been satisfied.

The kisses found her jawline, up to her forehead, fluttering across the eyelids closed because it was like a dream. Faith opened them again as the blonde slayer returned to her lips, making sure she hadn't woken up.

No, Buffy was still there.

Buffy was still kissing her in every ray of clichéd moonlight you could imagine streaming across that bed. And it was perfect. In that way clichés can be when you're there, and in them, and don't have a cynical thought in your head.

Don't have much of any thought in your head, really. She could feel Buffy's kiss tugging a little at her lower lip and the heat inside her was almost too much. For once, Faith even regretted her leather pants. Maybe. Buffy's skin was damn sexy pressed up against her thighs, that body moving subtly with her kisses. Faith whimpered a little, kicking off her boots, moving her fingers down to fumble for the edge of her shirt, the button of her pants.

Only to find Buffy's hand capturing her wrists again, holding them above Faith's head, bringing the cream skin of her breast, the pink nipple dangerously close to Faith's mouth as she did so.

"Please. Allow me." The blonde's voice was husky, her lips swollen slightly from kissing, as she trailed her hand down from the wrists Faith kept in place, down along the side of her face, down the valley between her breasts as Faith arched a little into her touch, to finally catch the hem of that shirt. And kiss the skin as it was revealed: her stomach, the cage of her ribs, the underside of a breast, then oh god the tip, and finally ripping the shirt over her head and flinging it into some forgotten corner of the room.

She sighed at the feeling of skin on skin. What she'd been missing. Buffy's skin touching hers in that impossible moonlight. The whole thing impossible when you thought about it. Which Faith both was and wasn't doing. Lying flat, her hands still above her head, forgotten in the sensations of the blonde making love to her. To her.

And then Buffy's fingers found the button on her pants, and Faith felt the slow descent of the zipper, the other girl's growling chuckle at the thin black boyshorts she found underneath. The green eyes found hers, smiled back at Faith's innocent eyebrow asking her "what?," then dove up for another kiss. Another ecstasy of kisses that caught her breath as Buffy's fingers traced the contours of that black material, touched her through the cotton, the hitch in Faith's own throat this time, and she abandoned herself to the girl slowly sliding the leather down and off her legs, to the lips that folded back the black waistband to kiss underneath, then the hands that peeled it all off.

And Faith was naked.

Beautiful under adoring hands that made their way over her body as if they'd always known it. Had known it under the most primal circumstances imaginable. Tasted it now. Again, as Faith's eyes rolled back in her head and she almost forgot who she was.

* * *

In the darkness, Buffy held her, a leg and an arm thrown across her. She felt the shudders still working their way through the dark slayer as her breathing returned to normal. Pretended not to notice the tear she knew Faith would not want her to notice. Ran her hands through that dark brown mane, soothing her with the fingers on her scalp and the touches she brushed down her arms, across her shoulders, her cheeks. Felt her grow heavier on the bed as she fell asleep under that caress. Watched her in that low light.

And soon, laying her hand finally over that most prominent scar, Buffy, too, fell asleep.

* * *

When she awoke, the first thing she could feel was the warmth. The someone beside her. Then the slow smile on her own face, venturing one eyelid open in the morning sun to find a brown one looking back, a little nervous.

"Not so sure what the morning protocol is here, B."

"Kiss me." The brunette was about to oblige when the blonde's eyelids flew open. "No, wait! Bad breath. Brush teeth." Except that last part was muffled under her hand as she dashed off for the bathroom, pausing midway to turn back and give Faith a pointed "stay!" Then emerging again, toothbrush in mouth, holding Faith's already-wet toothbrush in her hand, saying something that approximated "no fair!" through the foam.

When she came back, now with fresher breath, she found Faith sitting on the edge of the bed. She walked over to stand in front of the porcelain and dark brown of her, pre-raphaelite like a painting, except, you know, thinner. And real. And before her, looking as though she was deciding between the covers and the leather pants crumpled on the floor. Buffy rested her hands on Faith's shoulders, rubbing her thumbs along the muscles there.

"You okay?" The dark slayer nodded, but Buffy, unsatisfied, bent in for a tender kiss, feeling Faith's tentative response growing fervent as she grabbed the back of the blonde slayer's thighs.

"How long have you been awake? Don't lie...I saw the toothbrush." Buffy saw Faith's face slide from serious to playful.

"Just long enough to know you snore." She laughed at the horrified expression on the other girl's face, then at the swat she got when Buffy realized she was kidding. The blonde moved around her to sit behind her on the bed, legs straddling Faith where she sat, still on the edge. She rested her chin on the brunette's shoulder.

"You sure you're okay? I want you to be okay with this."

"I'm here, aren't I?"

The blonde placed kisses at the base of her neck. "I know. Thanks."

"Last night... God, B. Just, you know...wow."

Buffy reached around to turn Faith's chin to her, looking into those brown eyes. "You're beautiful, Faith."

Faith's eyes slid back to the window. "Yeah, whatever." Then back to meet green, the side of her mouth curling up a little. "Ya ain't so bad yourself." She couldn't resist. "You know, for your age."

"What's that supposed to mean!? Just because I'm a little older does not make me..."

Chuckling, Faith spun on the pouting blonde, pinning her down on the bed with her body, laying a finger over her lips. "S'okay, Mrs. Robinson. You're still pretty fuckin' hot." The blonde took that finger between her teeth and Faith felt the desire welling in her. "And still the biter, I see." Buffy tugged a little, then ran her tongue from the tip of that finger down into the groove where it met the next.

"You know, you wouldn't let me use these hands last night..." Faith could see the postponed need in the blonde slayer's eyes. She pressed her hips against the other girl's and felt her groan, biting at her lower lip in a way that was so damn cute she had to reach out and steal that lower lip for herself. Kissing Buffy.

Coming up for air, seeing Buffy's eyes still on her lips, the blonde's own lips slightly parted. "And, you know, they are good for somethin'." One hand found a breast, and the blonde's eyelids fluttered a little as she rolled the nipple between her fingertips.

"Mmm...good." Buffy could only manage one syllable at a time as her body ached at the teasing touches, gasped as the dark slayer's tongue ran a line between her breasts. She pulled that mouth up to kiss it again, cupping the other girl's face as she had the night before, wanting more of those kisses, more of Faith.

Until she could hardly kiss anymore as Faith's hand climbed up her inner thigh, brushing across her, and her mouth was just open, gasping at the touch that was so close...

"Good enough to make you lose control, B?" The question came in that same whiskey voice, but, at it, Buffy opened her eyes again, holding the other girl's.

"No, Faith. Firmly in control here." Her words were breathless, but serious as Faith's face watched her, serious in its turn for a long moment. Then she broke into a grin.

"That's what you think."

And as Faith touched her—finally—Buffy almost had to agree.

* * *

Both were asleep when the knock came on the door several hours later. From the curve of Faith's arm, Buffy stirred, feeling the other girl mumble a little, tightening her grip on the blonde.

"Gonna have to get that."

"No." The word came out short and pouty from where Faith's head was buried against the back of her neck.

"S'okay, I'll be back." At Buffy's words, Faith tightened again, then sighing, released her, grumbling about the indecency of knocking before noon.

Wrapping a blanket around herself, the blonde slayer padded to the door, opening it a crack to find Willow on the other side. The redhead raised an eyebrow at her attire.

"Sorry, Buffy." Pause. "Is Faith in there?" Buffy nodded, a slight smile from Willow. "Well, then maybe you both should come down when you get dressed."

Buffy tried to shake the fog of sleep from her head, wondering that her old friend seemed more subdued this morning. "What's up? You guys find something? A way to get her back?"

Willow's brow furrowed a little. "Maybe...I don't know." She sighed. "I just...I think you guys should come down and we'll talk about it."

Buffy looked back longingly at the bed and the slayer tangled in it, then sighed herself.

"Okay. Give us time for a shower, then we'll be down."


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: I'd love to hear what you think about the turn of events in this chapter.

* * *

It was a long walk back to the bed, knowing she couldn't climb back in. She sat next to where Faith lay, sprawled out on her stomach, sexy as hell in the post-coital ruin of the sheets. Buffy ran her fingers along the other girl's spine, feeling that soft, warm skin, hearing the purring hum her touch elicited.

"You're making it really hard not to stay, you know that?" There was a muffled "mm-hmm" from the dark slayer. "Yeah, I thought so. But Willow's got something she wants to talk to us about. Gonna go get in the shower, okay?" Hearing only a grunt in reply, Buffy placed a kiss between the middle of the other slayer's shoulder blades and dragged herself off to the bathroom.

Once inside, she turned on the shower to a temperature calculated not to wake her up too fast and luxuriated under the spray. Willow hadn't said how fast she needed to be down there.

The issue of timing became even more in doubt when she saw the blurry shape of Faith on the other side of the glass, this time outside, looking in. She saw the dark slayer's finger tracing the shape of her body against the steam on the glass.

"Are you going to play Picasso all day or are you going to come join me?" The brunette's finger stopped, making an abrupt 90-degree turn to trail over to the door handle, slide it back, and step in.

And then stand there, shifting slightly from foot to foot, arms crossed over her chest.

"_Now_ you're going to get shy on me?"

Faith furrowed her brow for a moment. "Nah, it's just...I've never..."

"You've never showered before...wow, we are soooo going to have to work on the personal hygiene thing." Faith leveled her a look for that.

"No, dumbass. Just never, you know, showered _with_ anyone. Seems kinda intimate." She paused, then hurried on, picking up one of the bottles in the corner. "And I don't know what you do with all this shit. I mean...salt scrub? What the fuck do ya need that for—what am I, a piece a meat?"

Buffy wisely chose to let the first part of Faith's comment slide, filing it away. Instead, she took the little round tub from Faith's hand, unscrewed the lid, and dug her fingers in.

"Let me show you." The brunette looked skeptical, but could hardly resist the blonde's sexy grin. Except that she tried to, shrinking against the wall in mock horror as Buffy reached out with the stuff, until the older slayer circled with her other arm around Faith's waist and drew her in and then she really couldn't resist. Nope, no chance of that when Buffy's hand smoothed the scrub over the flat of her stomach, up around each breast in turn, bringing the scrub around Faith's back and down as her hands reached to cup Faith's ass.

The dark slayer raised an eyebrow. "I don't know whether to be turned on or grossed out. It's kinda gritty, B."

Buffy rolled her eyes, pushing the other girl around her, under the spray, standing behind to help her the water wash the salt off, leaving that sheen of oil that her hands slid around in as they moved up her abdomen to her breasts. Faith started purring again.

"Thank you for joining me. For staying. For all of it." With each sentence Buffy uttered, her hands crept lower so that the dark slayer could only gasp out a "no sweat" before Buffy was touching her and she had to put out her hands on the wall in front of her for support, leaning back into Buffy's body, a steady oh-god-oh-god-oh-god on her lips as her hips moved under the cadence of Buffy's fingers to finally convulse as she cried out, and the older slayer caught her to keep her from falling to her knees.

Buffy held her under the spray for a moment, then, making sure Faith could support herself, reluctantly pulled away and stepped out of the shower.

"Hey, I wasn't done with you!" Buffy almost stopped, hearing Faith's husky invitation, but forced herself to towel off.

"I'll hold you to that." She sighed, wringing out her hair. "It's just...I promised Will and she seems out of sorts, so...I guess we have to go down there and see what's up." She pressed her hand briefly against the shower door before going out to see about some clothes and then downstairs to find out what the latest apocalypse was.

* * *

Buffy found everyone in the living room already, clearly several hours in if the number of books on the floor were any indication. She was a little sheepish that she hadn't helped. Sort of. Okay, not really, considering how she'd been occupied. She almost groaned at the thought of the girl upstairs in the shower.

Must focus, must get coffee. "So what's the sitch, guys? Will said you might have found something." At her words, Giles took his glasses off and cleaned them. Well, that wasn't a good start.

"It's possible, Buffy."

"Okay...so are you going to make me guess, 'cause I'm no good at charades."

"No, no." Her former watcher looked over at Dawn and Xander, their serious faces. "Perhaps we should provide a little context first." Buffy settled back on the couch, feeling like this might take a while. Giles continued. "We were having very little luck researching this phenomenon of a vampire who is also a slayer. There simply isn't a precedent for it. Indeed, we still don't fully understand it, except by way of the fluctuations going on in the slayer line at the time of Kennedy's turning."

"I thought we'd gotten through this." Buffy's brows knitted, confused. "Didn't we decide that the slayer overload made Kennedy strong enough to keep the vamp at bay, at least a little? And that now the two aspects of her are all at war and everything."

"You're quite right. We don't _know_ it, of course, because nothing like this has ever happened, but it seems to be a valid hypothesis. And it may be as well that, when turned, her slayer essence mixed with the demon essence of the vampire in such a way that her slayer abilities weren't reduced when Willow performed the spell to take her back to her potential status."

"So...still not seein' what I had to get out of bed for, here."

"Well, the troublesome question is what we should do about it. And, again, there is no precedent."

"Is there ever? I mean, can't there just once be precedent were we can say 'yeah, this is just like that other time...'"

Giles ignored Xander's snide remark. "So, in an endeavor to find something that might help us, Dawn and I have been reading old documents from the Watcher's Council and have found some rather disturbing practices."

"Well, that's shocking." Buffy rolled her eyes.

"What's shocking?" At Faith's voice, Buffy smiled, reaching her hand behind her to catch the other girl's as she went by to the kitchen for coffee.

"Council. Doing bad stuff."

"Screw that."

"Again, why didn't I have the foresight to say that so long ago?" She made room for the dark slayer on the couch as she settled in next to Buffy, who promptly put her legs over the other slayer's lap. Faith raised an eyebrow at her, her eyes skittering across to catch those of the others in the room. Buffy raised an eyebrow right back and left her legs where they were.

"Yes, well. Apparently starting in the 1600s, the Council began bleeding its slayers, at first just to study their blood. Then, as transfusions were coming into fashion, the Council was looking ahead to the idea being of provide blood for transfusions given the wounds the slayers would inevitably suffer in their line of work. But there was no refrigeration, of course, to keep the blood fresh until the need arose, so the transfusions they performed were largely on non-slayers, for experimental purposes. The interesting thing is that they documented changes in the recipients of successful transfers: some additional strength, agility, and whatnot. Not slayer standards, by any means, but enough to where the Council controlled the process closely, not wanting to create a whole horde of people with slayer strength whom it could not control."

"Yeah, 'cause, gosh, that might have been helpful in the battle against evil."

"Buffy, I am not saying I agree with their methods, just telling you what Dawn and I discovered." The blonde slayer made a theatrical gesture for him to "carry on." He cleared his throat. "It was in the early twentieth century that refrigeration made it possible to do what they had originally intended, banking slayer blood to use after particularly grim battles, sometimes to save a slayer's life."

"Mighty nice of 'em." The corner of Buffy's mouth tipped upwards at Faith's sarcastic remark. Funny, but not really in light of all the Council had put both of them through. As the dark slayer put her coffee cup down on the table, she brought her hand back to rest it on top of Buffy's knee. Neither looked at each other, but both felt it.

The Englishman looked over at the two girls in front of him. "Of course, since the Council found both of you to be rather...difficult, it had no occasion to use the practice on either of you."

"Yeah, I'd have liked to see them try." Faith snorted.

Giles went on, oblivious. "And once again, they noticed unexpected effects from those transfusions, a marked heightening of the slayer's natural abilities and instincts. And so, once again, they began to experiment. At times, I'm ashamed to admit, they saw to it that slayers were gravely wounded in battle so that they could discover how much the transfusions could compensate for, from what brink of death the slayer's blood could bring them. The results, regardless of their methods, were startling."

"Look, G-man, I get that they were being all mad scientist and everything, but it's not like that's a big news flash and I don't see what this has to do with Kennedy..." She looked over for confirmation to the blonde next to her, only to find Buffy's face drawn, looking over at Willow, who had yet to speak in all this.

The redhead stared back at her old friend. "Buffy..."

The blonde slayer's voice was quiet, even in the hush of that room. "You think slayer blood will do it." Faith's thumb stopped the unconscious circle it was rubbing on Buffy's leg.

"But we don't know, do we, Giles? I mean, we don't know if it would work." Dawn's voice was urgent as her eyes shifted between Giles and Buffy.

"No, Dawn, we don't. Nevertheless the evidence is very suggestive and, given the unusual nature of this situation, our chances of finding another option seem slim."

Buffy was still looking at Willow, eyes almost pleading. "How much?"

It was Giles who answered, his voice soft and apologetic. "We can't be sure. We've already seen that some blood will have an effect on Kennedy, that it can make her revert to her human slayer form. But that some has not been enough to help her slayer win out over the vampire within." He paused, glancing at Faith. "Nevertheless, we have seen something like this before...the use of a slayer's blood to heal, to overcome poison, anyway...well, I believe the language there was something like 'drain the slayer.'"

Dead silence. Faith's hand pulled back from Buffy's skin as if it was fire, and Buffy moved her legs away, coming to sit on the edge of the couch.

"Well, this is awkward." Xander's words sat heavy in the air. The dark slayer dared to look over at Buffy, finding the blonde's eyes staring straight ahead, a million miles--or rather several years--away, filled with the images of the arrow, Angel, the rooftop, Faith, the knife, the blood, the piercing pain at her neck and the jerk of Angel's feeding as she'd lay on the floor under him, dying.

Faith saw it all and decided to get up before Buffy did. In a blink, she was out the slider into the backyard, slamming the door of the training room after her.

Feeling her go, Buffy closed her eyes.

"Will, Angel had a soul...we _knew_ he was on the good side and even with him..." She paused and her voice almost cracked. "How do we know Ken will stop in time?"

Giles, softly. "If you choose to go this route, Buffy, we would just have to hope Faith could make her stop."

Willow was finally able to speak. "Buffy, you don't...maybe there's another..."

The blonde slayer sighed, running her hands through her hair, holding her head. "Giles says it's the only way to get her back, Will, and we owe her that. I've got no choice."


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: Thanks again for your generous reviews! As always, they keep me excited and writing.

* * *

Blood. Blood on the knife, blood on her hands, blood on Angel's chest, blood from Faith's gut, blood she shed, blood pulled from her, violently, blood as killer, blood as cure, blood draining away.

It always came down to blood.

The first time, Willow would have tried to stop her from giving herself, if she'd known. This time, she wanted to stop her. And also didn't want to stop her. And made it Buffy's choice. But how do you choose something like that? How do you not choose it? Of course she would choose it.

Drain a slayer.

There was a quivering line running between her and the other, running from gut to gut. She had kissed that scar last night, slept with her hand on it, brushed over it this morning. Can it really still be bleeding, after all this time? Yeah. Probably. Knowing her, knowing Faith.

She felt Giles sit down next to her on the couch where she was still, staring ahead into nothing.

"Buffy, it's alright to say no." His glance at Willow, sitting anxious by the window. "It may be that the risks are just too great, especially with Faith..." Buffy dropped her head into her hands at the mention of the other slayer, feeling the vibration in that line between them. Faith pulling it taut.

"This is not Faith's fault, Giles." She spoke to the floor and felt him place a hand on her back.

"I know, Buffy. But the fact remains that, if she leaves, there would be no one to assure your safety. Indeed, there are grave risks even with her here."

The blonde got stuck on "if she leaves." She wouldn't, would she? Not now. Not this way. Yes. She would. She would because she told Buffy it would never work and because she believed that.

"I don't think she'll go, Buffy." The blonde raised her head, hearing Willow's voice near her, where she had come to crouch down next to her. Buffy saw in her friend's eyes the unspoken last part: "at least not until after..." She winced at that, looking out through the kitchen, across the back yard, to the training room. She could feel Faith there. She looked back to Willow's sad eyes.

Quietly. "Do you think this will save Ken?" The redhead looked down, nodding. Buffy drew herself up a little, her eyes taking in all of them in the room. "Then we do it. But we've got to find a way to get her here, maybe into those chains in the training room. Faith and I can try tonight...but she's not going to make it easy." Turning to Willow. "We could use your help, Will." Seeing her friend nod again, Buffy rose from the couch to find Faith.

* * *

She was not hard to find. She was working with a sword in the dim corner of the room, out of the reach of the midday sun streaming in. Beautiful to watch, the elegant swordwork, the thin blade tracing a delicate filigree in the air, the deceptive deadliness of that pattern.

Drain the slayer.

Buffy remembered what she felt when she heard the words. She had been ready then to do it. To kill Faith. Put on leather courage to do it. It had all been so messed up then. The knife _had_ slid in like she was butter. And that's the worst thing about it—when killing seems like something you could do first thing in the morning, making your toast. Fighting she could understand. Staking she could understand. But stabbing? Well, maybe she could understand that, too, then, because she certainly hadn't hesitated at the time.

The blonde slayer stood near, watching the swirl of the blade, flinching a little when Faith spun around to bring it within inches of her neck, meeting her eyes.

"Aren't you going to run?"

"No, but I think you want to."

Faith lowered her sword. "Then you're stupid. I could have killed you."

"What do you think I was trying to do when I came to your apartment that night?"

"Become me."

The blonde slayer sighed, sinking down onto the bench. "Faith, you and killer are not the same thing."

"Were then."

"Look, I'm not saying there weren't mistakes made—on _all_ sides—but, whatever happened, I still shouldn't have done that to you." She reached out her hand a little towards Faith, where she stood only a foot away, towards that scar she'd made. The dark slayer took a step back.

"You do what you have to do to put a rabid dog down."

"You are not a dog, Faith. You are a person, and I..."

"You what? You're big enough to come over here apologizin' for trying to kill someone you shoulda killed. Always the good girl. Even when you're sorry for somethin', it isn't really your fault 'cause, you know, you always do the right thing, B, and it always turns out. I'm the one who almost..." She grimaced, turning around and digging the point of the sword into the mat. "...almost fuckin' killed you." Spinning back around to face Buffy. "Why don't you ask me for a fuckin' apology? Huh?"

Standing to meet her. "Is that what you want, Faith? You want me to stand here all stone-faced and demand that you say you're sorry?" The other girl's face gave her the answer she suspected, and Buffy ventured out a hand to touch Faith's cheek. She could feel that the other slayer wanted desperately to go, was tensed for it. But she didn't go. Buffy went on more softly. "I may have wanted that at one time. I know I said some awful things that I regret. But I'm not there anymore. You're not that girl anymore. This is now. You didn't have anything to do with this. This is just some big jokes-on-us coincidence." She reached in slowly, tentatively for a kiss, feeling Faith tremble against her. Then putting her forehead against the other girl's, hands tangled in the hair at the back of Faith's neck. "Please. I want you to stay."

Buffy heard the other girl's ragged breathing, saw the wet at the corners of her squeezed-shut eyes. She leaned up to kiss her forehead, then turned, taking her hand to pull Faith back inside and up to her bedroom.

* * *

They lay quiet, curled together on the bed for a long time. Faith could feel Buffy's chest hot against her back, feel the slight touches she brushed down her arm, across her hip. Feel her hot breath on the back of her neck and, every now and again, a little kiss pressed into her spine.

"What happened, you know, after...?" The hand along Faith's arm stopped. "I asked Angel once, but he wouldn't tell me." She felt the older woman stiffen a little. "Nevermind, you don't have to say. Shouldn't have asked."

The hand moved a little again. "No, it's okay." A pause. "I forced him to take me instead."

"Shit, B." Faith had imagined it...how else could it have gone down and ended up with Angel still alive, or whatever, when she woke up? But imagining it and knowing it were so different. She could feel the blonde slayer shiver a little against her before that heat was suddenly gone. Faith turned over to face her, finding Buffy, lying flat on her back, staring at the ceiling, her breathing shallow. She marveled at the vulnerability of this woman who had always seemed so solid and strong to her.

"He didn't want to, but I made him. I punched him in the face until he turned and then I put his mouth at my neck." Her voice was halting, and Faith suddenly needed desperately to take her question back. She didn't need to know what she put Buffy through if it meant Buffy was going to have to relive it and it was clear she was.

"B, you don't—" But Buffy's eyes were still far away.

"When he bit in it hurt so much. So much. And I didn't know if he would stop. He was on top of me and it was like everything was draining away and I knew I couldn't stop him. Maybe I didn't want to stop him then." Her voice cracked and she looked over, for the first time seeing Faith. "After... Maybe I wanted to die." Her hand fluttered in front of her face and Faith grabbed it to kiss it, moving closer, feeling Buffy hug into her body. "Faith, I don't want to die now." That last was so soft she wasn't sure she even heard it. But she could see it in Buffy's eyes.

Fear.

The fear as the blonde dove in to kiss her, her mouth fervent and clumsy in its need, hands grabbing Faith, pulling her closer.

"Won't let that happen, B." Faith said the words straight into the mouth of the other girl as they kissed, hearing her small cries as she tried to bring Faith closer, as close as humanly possible, tugging at the bottom of her shirt. The dark slayer sat back on the bed to take it off, strip off everything else in a frenzy as Buffy did the same before turning her red-rimmed eyes back to Faith and, naked, grabbed her and brought her to her where she sat so that the two of them were sitting facing each other, legs around the other, holding the other to them, kissing again.

Their hands were rushed, rough in touches that left marks, red reminders they could feel it. Gasps of sensation. Of need. Tears they didn't wipe away. The cries of their lovemaking. Tangled limbs so that you couldn't tell whose scars were whose. Fingers tangled in hair, sucking on a lower lip, a hand on a breast. Then the fingers of each winding around and down to touch the other, feeling the readiness there. The cries of both light and dark slayers as they rode their passion. The blonde's head falling back, casting the face of her abandon upwards as Faith reached around with her other hand, holding the smaller girl flush against her, so tight that even in that final incredible release they both shared, when her muscles, her whole body, felt as if it would explode, she did not let go.

Would not, until the sun set.


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: As always, your thoughts and reviews are much appreciated!

* * *

"Well, don't you just look cute?"

At Faith's words, Buffy looked down at herself, at the clothes she had grabbed from her closet as the afternoon sun waned. Drawstring khaki trousers, riding low, a little pink camisole with lace trim, cream Converse, a white cotton jacket. Not to mention the matching pink panties and bra she knew Faith had seen go on underneath, as the other girl lay watching her, still naked, from the bed. Ok, there was a lot of pink going on.

"Excuse me, Miss I-take-my-fashion-straight-from-the-cow's-back. Sometimes cute is good. And there's no reason not to look good for this."

"This" hung in the air for a moment, but both tried to ignore it and the slight redness still around the blonde slayer's eyes, the fading marks of their lovemaking, how urgent it had been. So instead, Faith lounged, watching Buffy, who didn't mind watching her in return, her sexy curves, the soft waves of her dark hair a stark contrast to her skin. They tried to just be two girls, two lovers on any afternoon.

"You gonna get ready or go like that?" Buffy put on a sexy smile and sauntered her way over to the brunette. Faith smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Don't get me wrong...I'm not complaining, but Xander...well, I think it might just be too much for a guy with only one eye." She took a strand of the other girl's dark hair between her fingers, twirled it and let it slide through.

"Well, you know, I've never patrolled naked. Might be a lot more convenient for the old H & H."

"Perv."

"This from the girl whose foreplay involves biting." Buffy's face clouded for a moment as she turned to disappear into the bathroom, brushing her teeth. Faith kicked herself with a "shit" under her breath, then got up to gather her clothes from where they'd been flung earlier, sliding on the familiar leather, black. She trailed after the blonde, finding her staring into the mirror.

"Ready, B?" Faith stood behind her, looking through the mirror to meet her eyes.

"As ever." A deep breath, the mantle of leadership and strength and everything that was the slayer sliding back over her. "Let's go get Ken."

* * *

They found Willow downstairs waiting for them by the window, along with everyone else, standing around at loose ends. Seeing both Buffy and Faith, the tension on Giles' and Dawn's faces eased a little, and they stepped forward with crosses, vials of holy water—the things the slayers would need if they hoped to hold Kennedy at bay without killing her. Xander offered Faith two sets of handcuffs.

"Wow, Xan-man. It's always the time and place for bondage fun." At her words, the young man blushed, clearing his throat and trying at a manly slap on her arm that ended up being so not that Faith chuckled a little at him, holding up the cuffs and nodding her thanks.

Buffy reached over to take Willow's hand, bringing the redhead's eyes away from the dusk outside to meet hers.

"You're ready for this?"

"Sure, Buffy. I mean, maybe I can just explain it to her and she'll understand and come along and there won't be any problem." Her eyes were vivid against the paleness of her skin. "And...if not, well, I've got some pretty strong ladies at my back to help convince her." Buffy smiled a little at the last part and squeezed her hand.

Together, all three went out the door and into the evening.

* * *

"You feelin' what I'm feelin', B?"

"Yeah. That somebody's-watching-us feeling."

Willow's eyes joined the eyes of both slayers, scanning the darkness of the cemetery.

"That's the one, B." Then louder, into the night. "I got things I rather be doin' than pullin' your ass outta some bushes, Ken."

Buffy and Willow turned to look at Faith.

"What? I could have plans. A hot date." Buffy rolled her eyes and scanned the darkness again.

Willow turned to call out to her lover, feeling the other's eyes heavy on her, though still not seeing her. "Ken, please. We're here to help."

"And just how do you propose to manage that? I'm not quite to the point of a death wish...yet." Of course, she appeared behind them, making all whirl to face her as she stood some ten feet away, pale and so much like the slayer they all knew. Buffy and Faith couldn't help but tense at the sight of her, their slayers responding instinctively to the danger she posed to them, to Willow, to the world by virtue of the demon in her. And those slayers knew just what to do with such a demon. Faith's hand slid down to the stake she had brought just in case, but, at Buffy's glance, she did not take it out.

Kennedy's eyes were all for Willow, but Buffy and Faith were not so stupid as to think she was not aware of them moving to the side and a little behind her.

"We know what happened, baby." The redhead's voice was quiet, a little strained as the vampire who was her girlfriend slowly approached. "We know the slayer's still in you and that you haven't given in completely to the vampire and that there's still a way to get you back."

Kennedy paused at that, the conflict in her eyes as she reached out to touch Willow's cheek. Buffy and Faith almost jumped, not liking to see the vampire's hands so near the girl's throat, so near they would have a hard time stopping her if she chose to strike. Both moved a little closer, straining against the nature which told them to stop this now.

Willow's eyes closed at the contact, the long absence from it, the rightness of it in these wrong circumstances.

"Get 'me' back, Will? What me?" Kennedy's voice had drained of its mocking tone, matching Willow's. But then her eyes dropped to the cross dangling against the skin of Willow's neck, placed there for her protection. The vampire snapped it off in her hand, held it in her hand so that everyone could hear the singe of it in her fist. Buffy and Faith could not keep themselves from darting in this time, but pulled up short a few feet away at Kennedy's snarl, watching the vampire move closer to the redhead. "You don't want this me." She flung the cross from her, the chain whipping against the skin of the blonde slayer's cheek on its way to the ground.

"I want you, I do want you!" Willow spoke in a sob, feeling her lover reach out to touch the thin red line where the necklace had been. "We can help, we know a way, we can give you enough strength to control it!" Her words were rushed, garbled with tears.

"Control?" Kennedy's voice soft again, her face only inches from Willow's. "I'd still have _this_ in me, Will. Could you want me then?"

"Baby, we'll work it out...I know we can, if you'll just let us...!"

The vampire threw a sneer in Buffy's direction. "Yeah, we all know how well that works out." Then tender again, hands cradling the witch's cheek. "There is a way...we could be together..." One index finger trailing down one side of Willow's neck. Willow's eyes squeezing shut. "Only if you wanted..."

"No, Ken...please don't make me choose..." The redhead's words a gasp, feeling only the touch on her throat, the closeness of her lover.

And then the snick of the handcuff closing around her wrist.

Buffy yanked Kennedy back with her wrist in the other cuff. "Not gonna happen." She crouched to meet the other girl, now vamped, forced together by the cuffs binding them to each other. It was what she needed to do to keep her there, even as her slayer rankled at the close quarters. She found herself dragged in, and used that momentum to land her punch in the other girl's gut. But, in knocking Kennedy back, she was pulled forward, stumbling into her. Kennedy wound her arm around Buffy's neck, choking her until the blonde slayer's elbow dug into her ribs and she was forced to let go.

But not too far. They circled.

Willow's voice, pleading. "If you just come with us, please...Ken! We can do this...I promise! We can make it better!"

Faith circled the pair, waiting for her opening. Saw Buffy time the jerk of the chain to bring Kennedy right into her kick, the vampire staggering a little before recovering to try a kick of her own, easily knocked down, but leaving Buffy open to the punch of her chained hand, right into the side of her face. The blonde slayer, dazed, shook her head to clear it, tried to set herself for another kick, but was caught first by an iron hand on her throat. Squeezing. Both of her hands reached up to try to loosen that grip.

The snick of the handcuff closing on Kennedy's other wrist. "Let her go" in a low growl from Faith as the dark slayer jerked that hand back and away from Buffy's throat. And then the slayers had the vampire between them, hands a little out to her sides, the snarl of a trapped animal. Willow walked up to her as the girl's face reverted, and put her hand against her cheek, saw the other girl close her eyes.

"Please trust me."

* * *

With Willow in the lead, they managed to get Kennedy back without incident. All the way into the training room, to those same chains which had so recently held the other slayers when they too were uncontrollable and wild.

Giles and Dawn, the only ones yet to see Kennedy, blanched at her desperation, at the snarl and feral face when she felt the metal close around her wrist. But that face then reverted to the girl they knew when Willow approached, slowly. Buffy and Faith could feel the air crackle a little with the energy of her calming spell that strained against the will of the agitated captive.

At the end of her chain, Kennedy met her lover, breathing heavily as she looked at her. Buffy watched the two of them intently from some ten feet away, far enough not to be threatening to Kennedy, but close enough to step in if needed. Faith stood beside her, keeping an eye on the scene unfolding and the blonde next to her. Giles and Dawn stood close behind. Xander had taken a post near the door, his car keys in hand, ready for that anticipated race to the emergency room.

Willow had tears on her cheeks she did not bother to brush away, even as she looked, determined, at her the girl she knew.

"Ken, I need you to listen to me." The other girl's eyes were all for her. "The slayer is still inside you, but it can't hold back the demon without help. We found...we think we may have found a way...if you drink from a slayer."

At that, Kennedy through her head back and laughed, eyes a little crazed as she glanced between Willow and the watching slayers. "You guys suck at taking captives! You're gonna chain me up and then let me drink from one of them—oh, the punishment is killing me!" A pause, her face dead and serious. "Or, more accurately, them." Sneering, she whirled away from Willow, turning back to the chain's fixture on the wall, testing it a little.

Faith saw Buffy flinch. The whole room flinched. Buffy's breathing quickened almost imperceptibly, the pulse in her throat trembled under the skin.

"Ken, listen! I know you're in there." The redhead moved closer, inside the reach of that chain, reaching a tentative hand out to the other girl's back. Buffy gave a low warning, but her old friend glanced over to silence her as she laid her hand on Kennedy.

"Will!" The voice was choked and quiet. "Will, you don't know what it was like! I've done it...you don't know." Kennedy turned around to face her, then slid her eyes over to where Faith was standing, the healing wound she'd made—twice—still visible.

"I know." Willow reached up to cup her cheek, seeing the slayer in Kennedy writhing in disgust at what she asked, what went against everything it stood for. "I know. But it's the only way we've found. They say the blood will strengthen your slayer, make it strong enough... But you're going to have to drink..."

Hearing her trail off, Kennedy jumped into that pause. "How much?"

Another pause. Willow looked over at her old friend, meeting her eyes, then back to Kennedy. "Nearly all." The vampire's eyes closed.

"What if I can't stop?" This was so quiet only Willow could hear it. Willow and the slayers, whose hearing was sharp enough to pick it up.

"You have to, Ken. You'll have to or you might..." The redhead's voice broke a little. "You have to. Faith will try to help."

"I can't, I can't, I can't." The words were under her breath, and Faith looked between that conflicted girl and the girl next to her, finding the blonde's eyes pained but resolute.

"You can, baby, you can. Think about me. I need you back, Ken. I need you. This has been too..." Willow could hardly speak now, resting her forehead against the other girl's, feeling more than seeing her nod.

And at that nod, Buffy began to step forward.

Only to step into Faith, who had slid over in front of her, facing her, holding her.

"Wha—" Buffy felt the other girl's hands on her waist, her face close, watching Buffy's eyes. "Faith, move. It's time."

"Not you, B."

At her words, confusion again, then realization. "No, Faith, no way. I've got to do this. Will needs me to do this."

"Red needs a slayer."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean..." She struggled in the dark slayer's arms, trying to push her way around the other girl who was standing firm.

"So happens we got two here."

"Faith, I'm the one..."

"B, you ain't the only one of us gets to wear the white hat!" The dark slayer had to fight to hold the squirming blonde.

"No!" The blonde struggled more, tears now on her face. "You can't...please just...don't do this."

"Not givin' you the choice, B." Then a little softer. "I won't let you go through it again. Let me. Please."

"No, I won't! Giles!"

"Look, I love you, so just stay here, goddamit!"

And that shut Buffy up. Leaving her standing still as Faith turned from her with tears in her own eyes. Leaving her with Giles' restraining hand on her shoulder, both of them watching the dark slayer make her way to stand before the vampire.


	28. Chapter 28

They stood, face to face, neither sure how to begin, what to do, whether they wanted to really do it. Kennedy's face, human now, looked back at her friend, at the girl who'd shared a similar rebellious streak, a similar discomfort with Buffy's managerial style in the fight with the First—something they'd bonded over. But Faith was not the same as she had been then—not altogether new, but different somehow, more grounded. And Kennedy was not the same as she had been then, either. Now they only looked as if they knew each other.

Still, it is difficult to kill, or nearly so, someone who looks like someone you knew. Faith heard the whispered "I can't" under the other girl's breath, saw the squeezed-shut eyes for a moment, before Kennedy turned to find Willow, eyes pleading for another way.

And Faith just wasn't going to wait all day for this. Pulling a page from Buffy's book, she hauled back and punched the other girl in the face. Kennedy staggered, then snapped to form with a snarl, reaching out, little hesitation now, as she took Faith's neck in one strong, slender hand and yanked the girl to her.

Willow looked away.

Buffy could not.

Faith wanted to, forcing her fingers into fists so she would not push away, would not do what was natural for her. Her body wanted to fight against the hand at her throat bringing her in, holding her to where she could feel Kennedy bending close to find that other side of her neck, feel the blood waiting under the skin. The slayer blood Kennedy needed, that was also the blood Faith needed, as slayer, as living human being.

And then the teeth tore their way through skin, reopening that wound that had never had time to heal fully, reopening all its inflamed tissue. From far away, Faith heard Buffy cry out. She may have cried out, too. She couldn't tell.

It felt like hours, but was only seconds really before Kennedy gave a cry of her own and pulled away. Faith stumbled back. She knew this was not right—she was still here, she felt too alive for this. It had not hurt enough. With a shake of her head, she looked up to see Kennedy trying to turn away into the wall, wipe the blood from her human mouth.

"We ain't done here. If you're gonna do it..." Faith spun her around by the shoulder, punching her again. "...do it right." When she didn't turn, she hit her again, until she did, this time pushing the girl against her neck herself, feeling only those teeth sliding into the holes they'd already made, gasping as they found blood again.

When Kennedy had pulled away, Buffy had grabbed Dawn's hand, thinking it might be over. But seeing the vampire at Faith's neck again, the dark slayer swooning more this time in her grip, it plainly wasn't over. Giles gently unwrapped Buffy's hand from Dawn's, knowing the blonde could easily crush the other girl's fingers without knowing it, so focused was she on the bloody scene unfolding. Giles spoke to his former slayer softly, counseling patience even as he could see it was running out for her. Tears on her cheeks.

Faith couldn't feel anything but the hideous feeding pull at her neck, that way it is when you hurt yourself and it's as if the rest of your body goes away until you become the wound only. She fought to keep her hands in fists at her side. Fought to remember why she was keeping them there.

Buffy's hands, too, were balled, her mouth open, wanting to scream. She would have, she was sure of it, had Dawn not grabbed a hold of one fist, had Giles not circled his arm around her chest, holding her in like the father who wanted to protect her from everything he could not protect her from.

Dawn and Giles knew they could not hold the Chosen One forever.

Buffy knew it, too. Didn't know how long she could stand the sight of Faith's neck, laid open, the dark waves of her hair cascading down, her back arching as Kennedy's arm slid down to bend the other girl to the urgency of her feeding. The sight of Faith's legs crumpling slowly, inevitably under her as Kennedy followed her to the floor, still on top of her, still hungry at her throat.

"Faith!" Buffy's strangled scream.

And hearing her name from so far away, the dark slayer turned to look over, find the blonde slayer's eyes, hold them as her hand reached out across the floor. Then her eyes rolling back under the jerk of Kennedy's grip. The hands coming out of their fists to push at the other girl, but finding themselves too feeble now to do any good.

Buffy saw it and could not wait any longer, almost feeling the other girl slip away through the link between them.

Giles tried to hold her. "Buffy! We don't know yet..."

That hoarse cry. "I can't!" And then of course he couldn't hold her and she flew to Faith's side, knocking Kennedy off and away into the wall. Scooping up the now-limp girl. "Xander! Car! Now!" He raced out the door towards the garage, Buffy only moments behind him cradling Faith and with Dawn at her heels as Willow and Giles stayed behind to look to Kennedy.

* * *

_Please don't die, please don't die, please don't die_.

The words were a chant in her head. Or maybe they were aloud. Buffy didn't know as she held the dark slayer to her in the back seat. She checked every few seconds for a pulse, for breath, finding it each time but only barely, shallowly there. She held that pale body, brushed the dark strands of hair from her face. Held in whatever blood was left with her hand pressed against that bite.

She only looked away to narrow her eyes when she felt Xander slow down for a light, a stop sign. Things that seemed not to apply now. Vaguely she heard Dawn calling ahead. Girl. Some sort of bite. Lost a lot of blood. Bringing her in. Soon.

It could never be soon enough. Until it was and they were there and she was out of the car before it even stopped moving and through those swinging doors. The confusion of nurses and bright lights and finding a bed and inserting an IV and hooking her up to a machine and all the tedious explanations that weren't important when Faith needed blood. She didn't even know what she said. The girl on that bed was all that mattered and all she kept her eyes on, feeling the flutter in the link between them, like the flickering of a light, and then the shrill alarm of a flatline.

And miles away in the dorm room almost empty of those potentials who had gone home, who had places to go, Angie had not gone, having no place, sitting on the bed when she felt it come into her.

In the ER, it all went out of Buffy: the ability to stand, to see, to think. Her world narrowed to her scream "No! I love you! Faith!" She nearly collapsed, caught by Xander and Dawn rushing in before she hit the floor. The swirl of medical professionals around them, busy, working, doing this and that with furrowed brows until they finally coaxed that machine to sound the reassuring, regular blip of life again.

* * *

Faith awoke to the heaviness of a head on her chest, blonde hair splayed out, the soft breathing of sleep, a hand holding hers. Faith squeezed that hand a little and felt the other girl start awake, the look of panic quickly fading when she saw the dark slayer's weak smile.

"Kinda cute when you sleep. Heavy, but—"

She couldn't even get the whole of it out before Buffy was kissing her.

"Whoah, takin' advantage of the infirm, B." Faith said this into that insistent mouth, and Buffy, chastened, pulled away for a moment. But Faith didn't let her go far, holding her to the bed as the nurse walked in.

Looking down at her clipboard. "I'm sorry, Miss, but you can't be in here unless you're family."

Buffy blinking at the obviousness of it. "But I love her."

The nurse and Faith both looked at her.

The nurse smiled a little. "Well, that's fine with me then." Checked the machines and left.

Buffy turned to meet Faith's eyes, suddenly nervous at the intensity she found there. "I, thought I'd...yesterday when...did you mean it?" And despite all the drama of the night, all the pain, the desperation, the chaos of it, both knew exactly what "it" Buffy meant.

Simply. Putting it out there. Okay, maybe kinda nervous. "Yes." And Buffy leaned in to kiss her again, more gently this time.

"Hey, save the hot girl-on-girl action for my home videos, ladies!"

"Xander!" Buffy's mock growl as she looked up to see the young man walking in with Vanessa, followed by Dawn and Giles.

The watcher placed his absurdly large bouquet of flowers next to the bed.

"You know I'm allergic, right?" Giles' panicked expression, ready to swoop the flowers away again before she stopped him. "Kidding." He smiled down at Faith, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"It's good to see you well, Faith. I hope you'll be staying with us..." His question hung in the air as he glanced over at the blonde sitting next to her, still holding her hand. Faith also looked over at her.

"Till B kicks me to the curb." She earned a swat on the shoulder from the blonde for that one.

Faith made a theatrical gesture of pain. "Ow! And people think I'm the violent one! Least I don't go beatin' up on sick people."

"I'm perfectly gentle unless provoked."

Faith snorted at that. "There's a joke in there about your sexual proclivities, but I ain't makin' it."

From Dawn: "Ok, ew."

From Buffy: a mock glare. "There will be no discussion of Buffy's..." But she trailed off, seeing Kennedy standing nervously at the door with Willow next to her, holding her hand. Both girls looked pale. Buffy fought back her initial reaction, her slayer sense that still picked up the vampire, the too-recent images of Kennedy on top of Faith. She looked over quickly at the window to find it was night. She had lost a whole day. Then back to the girls at the door, rising to meet them, watching the brunette closely.

"Is she...are you...?"

Kennedy nodded. "Thanks to Faith. To all of you." She came into the room and Buffy moved aside to let her pass, placing a hand on the other girl's shoulder, squeezing. At the bed, she gave Faith a shy smile. "My hero."

Faith's face was serious for a moment with the gravity of how close they came, but then hid itself, making light in the heavy air of that room.

"S'no big. But, ya know, I'm gonna make you buy a turtleneck to cover this hickey you gave me."

"Don't know how I feel about Faith in turtlenecks." Buffy tossed in before she looked over to Willow, raising an eyebrow. When she received an answering smile, she pulled the other girl into a hug, then let her go so Willow could stand next to Kennedy, her arm around her lover once again.

Faith gave the room an exasperated sigh. "It took her, what, all a 15 minutes to start tellin' me what to wear. Christ, you guys coulda warned me."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, coming over to stand by the dark slayer again, taking her hand. "Well, somebody's got to save you from yourself. And save the cows from you. Should I have waited a half an hour?"

The dark slayer drew her in. "Never one to make a pretty girl wait, B." She took the blonde's face in her hands, kissing her, tugging a little on that lower lip.

Dawn's protest: "Hey, still in the room here!"

And indeed, the rest of them, though unnoticed, were still there, until Giles gently shepherded them all out into the hall with a feeble "I believe Faith needs her rest" as the two girls kissed and Buffy climbed onto the bed next to her, settling into that kiss and that space.

FINI

A/N: And so it ends, timed to coincide with the upcoming bar exam that—alas, alack—must now take my attention. This has been really fun for me...a great way to procrastinate! Thank you all for your wonderful, encouraging responses. I'd love to hear any final thoughts you have on what you liked, didn't like about the story as a whole. Whether I should ever in a million years try this again. Etc. Etc. My humblest thanks for reading (very humble...see the cat (Ginger) on my page)!


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